Cool Kid
by NerdyNobody
Summary: After the fight against the BULLIES, things are finally starting to calm down. However, whether they like it or not, the NERDS are thrown into a whole new adventure. This time with an unlikely new friend.
1. The new kid

It was two months after the whole thing with the bullies, and things had finally winded down a good bit. Today was supposed to be a regular day for the NERDS. There didn't seem to be too many missions that needed attention to after the whole fiasco, which was nice, however, fortunately or unfortunately, an entirely new fiasco was about to take place. And it all started when the kids had sat down for class. Their teacher rifled through a few papers that she had and gave a wide smile.

"Well, today should be an exciting day! We have a new student arriving today!" She said. The NERDS collectively looked at eachother, frowning. Julio leaned slightly over to the others, whispering out of the side of his mouth.

"Aren't we supposed to be told about that stuff?" He said. Ruby nodded, scratching slightly.

"Yeah. We are." She hissed back.

It was a tense next few minutes, for all of the class. Not just the NERDS. It wasn't until almost a full half hour that there was a knocking at the door.

"Oh! That must be our new student!" The teacher said jubilantly, walking over and opening the door. The principal walked past her and into the room.

"Now children, I'm sure this is a little last minute, but I hope you will welcome miss Eve with open arms. Eve, you can come in." He said, gesturing one hand into the room. An immediate reaction of "oh no" went through the minds of the NERDS as the new student stepped in. She had long, almost white, platinum blonde hair that went slightly past her hips. She was pale and tall, likely the tallest in the class. She was wearing a black, studded, leather jacket and tight jeans that had chains attached. She was clutching a black skateboard with a white skull on it under her arm, as well as her school books, and covering her eyes, was a pair of black sunglasses. Her hands were covered by fingerless black gloves that had an oval shape opening on the back, and looking up, around her ears were two black and blue dragon earrings that came up and around the top of her ear. She was the epitamy of the cool kid trope.

There was a collective cringe from any nerds in the class as they saw her come in. There was no doubt in their minds that she was a bully. She walked with a pronounced confident strut, one hand on her hip. She came to the front of the class, shifting her weight to one side. She raised the hand that wasn't on her hip up.

"Sup dudes. Name's Eve." She said cooly. Her voice was steady and slightly deeper than a usual girls. Such than she would be able to pass it off as a boys if she lowered it slightly. She gave a small peace sign, sticking out her tounge, showing the stud piercing she had there. The principal put a hand on her shoulder.

"As you heard, this is Eve. She just moved here from California. Isn't that nice?" He said. He then turned his attention to Eve.

"Your seat would be over there miss Eve. I hope that you will like it here at our school." He said, gesturing to the empty desk near the back of the room. After that, he waved, before leaving, at which time their teacher entered the room again.

"Well isn't this exciting? Its always nice to have new students." She said. Eve nodded, strutting to her desk and placing her books into it. Class went without a hitch. Every now and then a student would glance over at her. Any time she was asked a question, she would reply with a steady and unchanging voice. Not emotionless though. After class, just before lunch, the group gathered in the library for a meeting.

"This is absolutely not good." Heathcliff immediately said. The others nodded in agreement.

"We already have to deal with enough bullies as is. We really don't need another one." Duncan groaned.

"Yeah. And we are always supposed to be informed of transfers before they come in!" Ruby cried. They all collectively groaned. A few seconds later, their librarian and information keeper, miss Deprankova, appeared.

"Hello children, I'm guessing all of you are wondering why exactly we did not inform you all about the student transfer." She said. The kids nodded, beginning to talk all at once in collective frustration. Then, Brands voice came into the room, and they all turned their frustration onto him.

"Now now, no need for the anger, trust me, we're frustrated too. We were unable to tell all of you about the new student because we only got notified of it this morning. If we had been told earlier, you would have known." He said placatingly.

"You know, I don't think its very good to judge a book by its cover. For all we know Eve could be a very nice girl." Miss Deprankova chimed in. The children all gave her a deadpan look.

"I'm pretty sure we know a bully when we see one ya know." Matilda said. The others nodded. Miss Deprankova sighed and shook her head.

"I know. But you should always give people at least one chance. I mean, look at how Jackson started out!" She said. Some of them seemed to consider this, but most of them still weren't very convinced.

"I mean, yeah I guess. Although if we do happen to be right, just know that we told you so." Duncan said, crossing his arms. Jackson snorted.

"How long you guys bet until she gets to popular kid status? I'm betting a couple days at most." He said.

"Nobody is betting on anything. Just go about your days and see where it goes." Brand said. There was a loud ringing as soon as he said that. He looked over at the clock.

"That would be the lunch bell. Alright all of you, get out of here." Brand shooed them all out into the hallway before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing.

Unfortunately, simply getting to lunch was never actually an easy task as it should be. A group of bullies was waiting for them right outside the cafeteria. At this point, they had resigned to their usual fate, ready for the man handling and shoving into lockers, however, little to their or the bullies knowledge, someone had seen them.For a minute they were handled roughly, pushed around, given purple nurples, the usual, but as they were about to be shoved unceremoniously into the lockers, an steady voice echoed through the hall.

"Hey." It said. The voice was new, but immediately familiar. Everyone seemed to freeze a bit, turning to the voice. Standing there in the middle of the door of the cafeteria, was Eve.

{Hey guys! This is my second fic. Well, more of a preview honestly, since I still need to finish Taking the world by storm. The other will probably not be done for a while, so your gonna have to wait a bit for this one. Anyway, I hope you guys are excited for Cool Kid! Cuz I sure am!}


	2. Dont judge a book by its cover

Eve's day was going fine. Sure, her mom had enrolled her in one of the local schools with literally no warning beforehand, but it was going fine. She walked next to the principal towards what she assumed what would be her first class. He had a nice enough energy she would say. Seemed like a good guy. She pushed her sunglasses farther up her face, preventing them from slipping down. The principal knocked on the door, and there was a muffled voice inside before the door opened to reveal a jubilant lady. She had a joyful energy around her, she was seemingly excited to have her. The principal entered the room.

"Now children, I'm sure this is a little last minute, but I hope you will welcome Eve with open arms. Eve, you can come in." He said, gesturing for her to enter the room. She did so, and immediately, all eyes were on her. She caught the nervous glances from some of the kids in there, presumably the nerds. It was understandable, she knew her aesthetic left much to be desired for them, since people who decided to look like this almost always happened to be bullies. There was a mix of nervousness and curiosity in the air.

She strutted to the front of the front of the room, leaning her weight on one leg, giving a peace sign with a hand, and sticking her tounge out.

"Sup dudes. Names Eve." She said. After that, the principal introduced her and showed her the desk she would be using, and left. Most the entire class she could feel their gazes on her. It made her slightly tense, but she kept her cool. A bell rang, and the teacher explained there was a small free period before lunch. Eve didn't exactly know what to do with that, so she simply waited it out in the bathroom, as she would rather not be swarmed by curious classmates yet. After that, another bell rung and she followed a few groups of other children to the cafeteria. This time, unfortunately, she wasn't able to avoid the slew of people that she had attracted.

She was able to play herself off as the lone wolf character, so many of the children had dispersed, opting to watch her a ways away from her, which she was grateful for. However, her attention quickly drew to the door to the cafeteria. There were two small groups of children standing there. One group had blocked the others way into the room. She watched for a minute, as she would rather make sure she knew what was happening, but sure enough the first group began to bully the other. It wasn't something she was going to be a bystander to. So she stood, walking to where they were. Soon enough she stood in the doorway. She placed down her skateboard, crossing her arms, standing straight up and staring across at the groups.

"Hey." She said simply. Both groups completely froze, stopping what they were doing and turning their attention to her.

"What are you doing?" She asked. There was an intimidating aura around her, sending the clear message that she wasn't one to be messed with.

The kids who were doing the bullying had more aggressive and cocky energys. It was clear that they took pleasure in what they did.

"Just roughing up the nerds. You wanna join?" One of them asked. Eve tapped on her arm, frowning.

"Nah. Back off of them." She said. The nerds eyebrows shot up, and they looked back and forth between each other. She didn't need to read into their energys to know they were surprised. One of the bullys growled.

"Don't want to. If you're not joining in then you can leave." He said. Eve let her arms go to her sides, walking slowly towards the groups. They looked intimidated. Just like she wanted. She stood in front of the one who appeared to be the leader.

"Not saying it again. Back. Off. Unless you want to get hurt." She said. The bullies looked back and forth between eachother before beginning to laugh. They continued this laughing fit for a minute, before the leader straightened up, wiping a tear from his eye.

"You think you can stop us? Wow, you must be pretty stupi-" He was cut off from finishing that statement swiftly. It was a fast move, almost too fast to be able to see, but all they knew was in a split second, he was on the ground face down with Eve's foot planted on his back. She looked back up at the bewildered bullies, who had quickly become terrfied and were beginning to back away from her.

"Anyone else have anything to say?" She asked, ice dripping from every word. The bullies shook their heads, Dispersing and stumbling over eachother to run away. She lifted her foot from the bully on the ground, and he rushed off after his friends as Eve watched him go. After they disappeared, she turned to examine the ones she had saved, who all had the same completely bewildered expression on their faces.

The first was a tiny Korean girl with short black hair, brown eyes and a a unibrow. Standing next to her was a similarly short, chubby African American boy with dark brown hair and eyes. More towards the back was a lanky Mexican boy with brown eyes and hair, as well as a weird harness that spanned his torso. Standing just in front of him was a boy with bright orangish red hair that stuck up and out, and light green eyes behind a set of glasses. Next to him was another boy with wavy golden blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and probably the worst set of braces known to mankind. In front of them all was a thinly built girl with extremely kinky blonde hair in two pigtails on her head, dark brown, almost black eyes and a pair of glasses. The group had mixed up energies, mostly confusion and surprise. Thinking back, she realized that these were all kids in her class.

"Oh, uh, thank you!" The short boy said. Eve nodded at him and gave a thumbs up.

"No problem." She answered back. She turned back on her heel, giving them a single wave before going back into the cafeteria, picking her skateboard back up on the way. There was something about those kids that tugged at her gut, she could sense they had the power to stop those bullies just as easily as she could. In all honesty, there was something weird about the whole school, and most of the students in general. It was a strange energy around everything, something secretive. She would have to look into it more at some point soon. For now she would settle for simply observing the area until something interesting happened.

{i had time and an impulse. so i did another chapter for this}


	3. Suspicions

Eve's finger tapped on her crossed arms as her covered eyes looked up and down the hall, waiting. Most of the children had left already, either having gotten on the bus home, started walking, or been taken by their parents. The past week she had gotten quite the reputation. The combination of her looks, attitude, and actions seemed to have quickly drawn people in. Word had already spread about what she did, although it was quickly messed up and embellished, much like a bad game of telephone. The stories had a tendency to vary person to person. Eve didn't particularly care about it since people seemed to leave her alone about it. Unfortunately, she still hadn't found anything out about the school other than the regular type of school things, leaving her suspicions left unsolved. Other than the fact that a few groups of children had a tendency to sneeze at the same time and suddenly leave for seemingly no reason, the children seemed to be pretty normal as well.

Footsteps suddenly started sounding off from a hallway or two away. Eve turned to the noise, before walking towards it. She looked around the corner of the hall. Walking into that hall was the small korean girl that was in her class, as well as the group she had defended before. Matilda was her name, if Eve remembered correctly. The girl stopped at her locker, looking around before opening it, and stepping inside. Eve raised a brow as the door shut, and stepped out into the hall. She walked over to the locker, and knocked on it. No response. Eve opened the locker,.looking inside. Her eyebrows went up, because as she observed, there was nobody there. She blinked, stepping back from the locker. Okay...yeah, something was going on. Eve noted to observe Matilda carefully. It might be helpful to observe her whole group as well.

She closed the locker door, when her phone suddenly rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the caller id. It was her mom. Eve sighed, answering it and putting it to her ear.

"Yeah mom?" She said, leaning up against the lockers.

"Heeeeeyyyy sweetie." Her moms slightly slurred texan accent came through the end. Yup, just as Eve had thought. She started drinking again.

"Sooooo, I'm a itsy bitsy tipsy. Not gonna drive like this. Mind getting your sister home hun? You know the way right?" Her mom said. Eve sighed again, nodding although she knew her mom couldn't see.

"Yeah. It's fine. Try to chill it on the wine, alright? Don't need to drag you back to bed again." Eve replied. Her mom snorted over the phone.

"Yeah yeah, I know. You're the best honey bear." She said. Eve stopped the call, dropping the skateboard from her arm.

Soon enough she was out of the school, rolling down the sidewalk quickly. She did a couple kick flips for fun, sticking the landings easily. She slowed down to a stop in front of a small elementary school. There were a few children there playing together, one of which being her little sister. She had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, and dark green eyes. She was currently playing hop scotch with about four other children who seemed to be her friends.

"Yo! Tommy!" Eve called. Tommy's attention drew over to her and she said a couple things to her friends before running over.

"Hey sis. Mom can't drive today?" She asked. Eve nodded, rubbing her neck.

"Yeah, nope. Drunk again. Sorry kiddo." She replied. Tommy nodded, hopping on the back of Eve's skateboard and grabbing her leg.

The two skated down the roads, chatting lightly. Unfortunately Eve couldn't do any flips or anything due to her sister.

"So, anything happen with you today, kiddo?" Eve asked. Tommy shrugged and shook her head.

"Not really. James swallowed a worm though. You?" She replied. Eve raised a brow. Eating worms didn't seem fun. She wasn't going to judge though.

"Well, mostly nothing, but yeah, I figured out that there's definitely something going on there. I saw one of the kids there go into a locker and completely disappear. Trust me, I checked." Eve said. Tommys eyebrows shot up.

"Seriously? I know you don't lie about stuff...but that's kinda unbelievable." She said. Eve nodded, humming in agreement.

"It is. I'm going to do some checking in on this stuff before I hop onto any conclusions. Putting that kid and her group on a close watch." She said.

"Kinda stalkerish don't ya think?" Tommy chimed. Eve snorted, a smile working its way onto her face

{Sup guys! Just to let you know, Cool Kid will now be updating on wendsdays! I finally got a schedule for this stuff.}


	4. Catching on

face on her hand. Their teacher was ranting and raving about the noise their neighbors made when they were having mini raves in their house, and not teaching them about the correct use of long division and money adding like he was supposed to be doing. Eve was curious about why they even kept him teaching in the school if all he did was talk about unrelated, personal stories. Not that it wasn't funny at times, she just thought it was slightly ridiculous. She pushed her sunglasses more up on her nose, looking outside. It was a sunny day, and a few birds flew through the sky. She sighed quietly, looking back to their teacher. It looked like everyone there was getting tired of him pretty quickly. Some had their head on their desks, some of them were leaning back in their chairs, and some had spaced out.

Suddenly, a loud, collective sneeze came out of six children in the room. Some of the other kids in the rooms attention drew to them with knowing looks. Eve saw the children that had sneezed was the group she had been watching. They stood up, going to the teacher.

"Uhh, Mr Danahan? Can we go to the bathroom?" The leader, Ruby if she remembered, said. The teacher scowled.

"No. We still have half an hour of class. You can hold it." He said.

"Bu-" The small boy was cut off.

"No buts! Back to your seats." The teacher growled. The kids looked between eachother with worried looks. Eve stood up, walking over to them. The six looked surprised.

"Hey dude. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Might just wanna let em go. Not like you're talking about anything important anyway." Eve said. The teacher sneered, opening his mouth to talk, but he was cut off.

Eve reached up, grabbing the edge of her sunglasses and pushed them down, giving him an intimidating look over the top of them. Her right eye was an icy, haunting blue. Her left was a dark forest green. Both eyes had small greyish circles around the pupil. The teacher siffened, beginning to sweat nervously as her eyes pierced into him. He gulped as Eve's eyes narrowed.

"U-uh, um, y-yes alr-alright. G-go right ahead." The teacher said. Eve nodded, satisfied. She pushed her sunglasses back up and turned on her heel out the door. The six children looked back and forth between eachother before following her.

"Uh, thanks? Again?" Jackson said with a questioning look. Eve gave them a thumbs up.

"No problem dudes. My pleasure." She replied nonchalantly. She turned down the hall, giving a wave.

"You do whatever you do. Disappearing into lockers or whatever. Because I know you're not going to the bathroom." She said. The group immediately tensed, freezing like dear in the headlights as Eve turned the corner. Heathcliff was the first to slowly turn to the others.

"Oh she knows something." He said. The group nodded.

"She definitely knows something." Julio said. Ruby looked around. Nobody had witnessed the moment.

"Alright, ok, we can deal with this later. We have a mission right now." She said, turning and walking down the hall. The others only hesitated for a second before following after. They opened their lockers and hopped in. Soon enough the six were inside The Playground with Brand waiting impatiently.

"What took you so long?" He asked. The group cringed together.

"Ummm, well, not to be pessimistic, but we think someone might be onto us." Duncan stated nervously.


	5. Typing in the park

Eve slammed her foot onto the side of her skateboard, causing it to flip as she hopped up and stuck the landing. Tommy clapped from her perch on the top of a small ramp. Eve had found a large skate park a few days earlier, and made it a point to come there frequently. Sure, she might have her own mini park at home, but she would rather be away from there. The sun was hot today, so she had dumped the usual outfit for a white tank top, black shorts and converse, and white gauze covering her fists. She stepped off of her skateboard, flipping it up into her hand and jogging over to Tommy and hopping up next to her.

"How many flips was that?" Eve asked. Tommy thought for a second, counting on her fingers.

"Uhhh, three hundred five I think." She said finally.

"Dang. No dice this time huh?" Eve said before sighing.

She stretched out her arms and kicked her legs out a few times, letting out the kinks. She reached behind her sister and grabbed her bag, pulling it into her lap and taking a silver laptop out. Eve opened it, turning it on and tapping on it a few times, bringing up some documents on it. Tommy put her head on Eve's shoulder.

"Still stuck on that feeling that something's up at school?" Tommy said. Eve rolled her eyes, despite the fact she knew her sister couldn't see past her sunglasses.

"Yes Tommy, I'm still stuck on that feeling that something's up at school. And until I am proven wrong, which you know that I hardly ever am, I will continue to be stuck on that feeling that something's up at school." She retorted back, typing away at her laptop. Tommy groaned, falling backwards onto the ramp and kicking her feet out.

"Yeah yeah. You have the whole sixth sense type thing. I know. How come I couldn't get that type of thing?" She said. Eve shrugged, continuing to type on her laptop. Her phone suddenly buzzed from the pocket of her shorts. She frowned, taking it out and narrowing her eyes at it.

"What is it?" Tommy chimed. Eve gave a confused look at the notification on her phone.

"Dunno. Emergency news looks like." She replied. Tommy hopped up, scooching to her side and peering at the phone.

"Did...somebody hack the news or something?" Eve said quietly. On the screen, was a warning for "mutant monsters" of some sort in their area. The two girls exchanged a look, raising their eyebrows. Eve didn't like the feeling in her stomach that she was beginning to get.

"Alright. Whatever. We're pretty much done here, so let's head home. Wanna go for a swim? We can play marco polo." She said, hopping down off the ramp they were perched on. Tommy nodded, hopping off into Eve's arms so she could set her down gently. Eve put her skateboard onto the ground, hopping on as her sister followed. She pushed forward, and soon enough, the two were sailing down the road. It was almost completely empty, which was disturbing for this time of day. Usually people would be coming home from work and whatnot. Eve suddenly slammed her foot onto the ground, stopping their movement. She twisted her body around in a 360, scanning the area. Tommy opened her mouth, about to say something, but Eve shushed her. She could hear something approaching. And by the sound of it, it wasn't a car, or a human.


	6. Beastly encounters

Eve swivled her head around, placing her hand on her sisters mouth to quiet her. By this point both of them could hear something. A loud stomping type noise, like something very large was walking towards them. Neither of them were ready for what stepped out from behind one of the buildings. It was about a story high, and was vaugely animal-like. It had two giant front paws, and two significantly smaller back legs with black hooves. Shaggy hair covered its face and made a small line down its back. It's jagged mouth was filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. Waving above and behind it, was a long scorpion tail, with a large sharp stinger on the end. There were all different animal markings all over its body. It was making a series of huffs and growls as it walked, seemingly not having noticed the two girls yet. Eve stepped of the skateboard slowly, pushing Tommy behind her as she settled into a defensive position.

The creature continued to walk for a second, not noticing the girls, but that was short lived as Tommy sneezed, and its head immediately turned towards them. Eve froze, pushing her sister back farther.

"Tommy. Go. Run. Now." She said through gritted teeth. Tommy looked up at her with a bewildered face.

"But sis, what about you?" She asked. Eve shook her head, continuing to push her away.

"No time. Just go. I'll hold it off for as long as I can." She said. Tommy looked as if she was about to retort, but thought better of it as she saw the creature begin to stalk slowly towards them. She gave a worried look at Eve, before running back. The creature saw what it probably thought was prey beginning to run away, and it began to charge at her. Eve, however, wasn't having that.

She took a couple running steps towards the charging beast before launching herself up and onto its head. It shook itself furiously, but Eve had a good latch onto its scratchy fur. Its tail swished, raising up before coming down at her. Eve rolled away and off of the creature before the stinger imapled her, instead it slid into it's own head. The beast let out an ear piercing screech of pain as it toppled over, scratching desperately at its head in an attempt to pull the offending stinger from its head as dark red, almost black, blood poured from the wound. As it did this, eve realized there was a large glowing mark on it's stomach. It was a bright red circle, that looked as if it was pulsing. Eve looked around before seeing a long sharp piece of what likely used to be a bike. She sprinted over to it, snatching it up before running back at the still screeching and howling creature.

With one smooth movement, Eve had buried the metal into the glowing spot. The creature screeched even louder, making Eve stumble back, clutching her ears. The beast struggled a bit more, before finally going limp as blood poured from the new wound. Eve heaved out a few breaths, closing her eyes and shaking the feeling of energy leaving the creature off of her. She began to walk back, until she heard voices. She looked around before darting into an alley, peering into the road. Soon enough, three people appeared. It was some of her classmates from the group she was watching. Jackson Jones, Heathcliff Hodges, and Julio Escala if she was correct. The two came to a stop at the dead creature and looked at eachother.

"Oh. Wow. Do you think one of the others got to it? We were supposed to be the only ones scouting this area." Jackson said.

Heathcliff frowned, scanning it. He walked to where the metal rod had been impaled into it and tapped it lightly.

"Hmmm. It's possible. I wouldn't think anyone else is around here since we sent a warning to get out of here." He said.

"Blubba gumba!" Julio cried. The other two stared at him. He reached up, turning a dial on the strange harness he was wearing.

"Sorry, I meant why does it matter? It's dead anyway, so lets get it out of here." He said. The others shrugged before Heathcliff gestured to the creature. Julio nodded, reaching down and grabbing it. In a second, much to Eve's surprise, he lifted it easily over his head. She wached as the three walked back where they came from, seemingly uncaring that their friend had heaved a story tall creature over his head.

"...Holy shhhhhhhhhhhoot." She said.


	7. Dodgeball disco

Eve tapped her thigh in thought for what must have been the hundredth time in the minute. She was still thinking about what she had seen, and if there was any possible logical explanation to it. There was nothing she could come up with so far, unfortunately. She was going to have to confront the group soon. She tilted her head to the left, dodging a another rubber ball with ease once again. Her class was currently playing dodgeball, and she hadn't been hit yet. Another ball came flying at her, and she raised a hand, catching it with no problem. She shook her head, shaking herself from her thoughts and getting herself back in the game. She decided she would just have to track them down during down time tommorow to confront them. For now, they were currently on her team, running around in an attempt to dodge balls thrown at them. She sighed, pulling her arm back and punting it into one of the opposite teams player's chest. They made a noise of frustration and disappointment before going off to the side and hopping on the bleachers, where the other defeated players sat.

She turned again, looking between her team and the other. The other team was almost halfway defeated, although her team seemed to be a little more. The blonde boy seemed to be doing the best. She wasn't surprised, considering the fact that she had heard he used to do football. She put her head back into the game, ducking and weaving between thrown balls, occasionally catching one and using it to hit another person, taking out two birds with one stone. It also seemed as if the bullies that she had dealt with a while ago were also on the other team. They were avoiding her altogether, which made her laugh slightly under her breath. Someone suddenly slammed into her side, sending her stumbling a bit. She looked to the side, glaring slightly.

"Oh! Sorry!" It was the hyper mexican kid. Julio if she was correct. Also the kid she had seen pick up the giant creature two days ago. She shook her head, waving him off.

"No problem dude." She said.

There was a slight whistling noise, and a wind flying past her face. On reflex, her hand shot out, successfully grabbing the bright red ball about an inch from the boys face. He looked bewildered. She looked over to where the ball had been thrown from with a harsh glare. Whoever had thrown it intended to hurt, depending on the fact that catching the ball had stung a good bit. It was, like she had suspected, one of the bullies. She caught his gaze, and he started backing out of the game with his hands raised. He turned, and Eve gave a small smirk to Julio before shooting the ball she had caught into the back of his head. He fell forward with a surprised cry, and the ball bounced back onto another persons head. Eve looked back at Julio, who had a grin on his face and was giggling slightly.

"And that's karma baby." Eve lamented, jogging off to grab another ball, and continuing the game. This continued for another couple minutes, the opposing team quickly being depleted, until a loud siren rang through the school.

"Tornado siren?" Eve said quietly, looking around. She had heard about multiple false alarm sirens in her short time here, so this was making her more than a little suspicious. Not to mention she had seen the little group she had been watching sneeze all at the same time before this happened. It was all very strange to her, and all the alarm bells in her head were going off. She quickly dodged between the people, launching herself through a gap in the bleachers, somehow going unnoticed, backed up, and waited, ready to run if need be. As soon as everyone was gone, the door opened, and in stepped the librarian. Eve watched her silently as she jogged over to one of the climbing ropes, tugging on it a few times. Everything rolled down from there. The room began to shift, and transform. The ceiling above them opened up, as well as the floor, revealing a large rocket. She had to prevent herself from gaping. Scientists in lab coats and the like scuttled around doing one thing or another, and into the room, entered the group she had been watching. She pulled her phone out, taking a few pictures of the area before observing them.

The small girl, Matilda, flipped out her inhalers, and with the press of a button, she had taken off into the air. The small boy, Duncan, laughed before running up the wall and after her. The blonde boy, Jackson, gave a couple finger guns at the other three remaining children before hopping off the platform they were on, a pair of metal tentacles coming out of his mouth, grappling onto another platform above, and lifting himself up. The jittery mexican boy, Julio, clapped his hands, grabbing a candy bar from his pocket, shoving it in his mouth, and shooting off at superspeed. The other two, Ruby and Heathcliff, only watched, occasionally talking to eachother. Soon enough a man came into view down near the rocket, and he called all of them down. It was the janitor, but he looked to be dressed in a sharp suit. He said something to the children before he went into the rocket, followed by the others, as well as the librarian, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. In a minute, the rocket had blasted off through what used to be the ceiling, and the room began to shift back into what it was previously. She looked at the pictures she took before going to her texts, and texting her sister.

Radicalskater420: Lil sis, I have _seen_ some things. I'll tell you everything when I pick you up.


	8. Confrontation x2

Eve's pen tapped quietly on her desk in time with the clock on the wall next to the door. Yesterday could have been passed off for a fever dream had she not known better. There was no doubt in her mind now that she was going to have to do a little bit of an "interrogation" session. Of course when she said interrogation she meant cornering the group she watched in the library and talking to them as calmly as possible. The pictures she had taken would likely convince them to talk if nothing else. She had tuned out the teacher for a while now, specifically so she could be left to her own thoughts. The bell finally rang, shaking her from them. As she thought, the group left together, heading towards the library. She waited for them to be gone, before going to follow them. She already knew where they were going, so there was no hurry. She dodged the occasional person in her path, making her way quickly down the hall, and she was at the library before she knew it.

She opened the door, and sure enough, there was the group, sitting around a table and reading quietly. Well, most of them. Jackson had kicked back with his arms behind his head and feet on the table. The librarian scolded him as she walked by with a small cart of books. Eve strutted over, grabbing a chair, flipping it around, and sitting in it with her arms crossed over the back of it, head resting on them. The group looked bewildered, staring at her for a moment.

"Uhh...hi?" Julio said. Eve raised a hand in greeting.

"Sup lil dude. Hope you don't mind me asking y'all a few questions." She said. Matilda snorted, smirking slightly.

"Y'all?" She asked quietly. Ruby shoved her slightly with her shoulder, looking tense.

"Sure? What do you need to know?" She asked. Eve gave a small smile, tapping her finger on her arm.

"I was just wondering what this school is hiding. I don't think regular schools have gyms that have a rocket and scientists running around below it. I would also appreciate knowing why it seems that you guys in particular have little powers it doesn't seem like you like to show off." She answered.

The reaction was immediate. She could feel their stomach drop and their hearts shoot into their throats as their faces dropped. They looked between eachother before looking back at her.

"Ha..ha ha. What do...what do you mean?" Duncan laughed nervously, an obviously fake grin on his face that looked more like a grimace. Eve frowned, glaring slightly.

"Don't try to worm your way out of this. In fact, just to prove I know y'all are yanking on my chain, here's a little proof." She said, taking out her phone with one swift motion, turning it on and flipping it to them, showing the pictures she had taken from under the bleachers. They looked absolutely horrified. Slowly, their gazes came back up to Eve. She had raised her brows at them.

"Ready to talk?" She asked. The group was tense. Suddenly, Ruby gained her voice back.

"Matilda! Tranquilize her!" She cried. Matilda flicked her inhalers up, aiming them at her. Eve reacted quickly, dropping to the side and dodging a small dart that came from the inhalers as soon as she heard the cry.

She hopped to her feet, fists raised at the ready, but they were all interrupted by a loud crash, as the wall behind them collapsed inwards, making both sides drop for cover. Plaster, dust, and pieces of wall flew through the air, invading Eve's lungs and making her cough loudly, along with the others. She rubbed the residue from her sunglasses, looking through the dust. A large creature appeared through the wreckage, shaking the plaster off of its fur. It was similar to the one she had seen before. She pulled herself back up, looking backwards to the also now recovering group.

"Know what? We can leave this here for now. You're not off the hook, but there are new things to deal with. What even are those things? I killed one before, but dang!" She called.

"Hold on, you killed one of those things?????" Jackson asked. Eve nodded.

"Yeah. To my memory, it was also the one that Julio over there picked up with one hand." She said. They looked surprised.

"That was YOU??? How did you do that? Usually those things don't actually stay down when you kill them." Ruby said. They were wasting time. The creature had already noticed them, and was stalking forwards.

"Weak spot on its stomach. You seriously didn't notice that? But nevermind that, less chit chat and more trying not to- oh lord there's more of them." She cut herself off as more of the creatures stalked into the room, starting to circle them. The seven children backed up into a circle, looking around at the creatures.

"Alright. I know for a fact that all of you can probably deal with this, so why don't you get on it?" Eve asked the group. They looked at her for a second, before looking at Ruby, who nodded.

"Lets do this." She said. The group broke off, each running at a creature. Eve thought for a second, before shrugging and charging after them.


	9. Killing blows

When people in books said that time seemed to slow down, they were very much right. Eve saw the group of kids launching different series of attacks on the monsters in front of them with various different powers, driving a few back, except for Heathcliff, who was sticking close to Jackson's side to both help him and protect himself, so it seemed he didn't have any particular powers. Not ones that she could see anyway. Eve herself was shooting along the floor, towards one of the unoccupied creatures near the back. As she got closer, time seemed to speed back up again. As she ran, she stooped down, grabbing a large rock that was a part of the rubble surrounding them. The creature she faced didn't have a scorpion tail, but instead had a large fin like appendage, similar to how mermaids were portrayed. She let out a loud yell, gaining its attention as she pushed out a burst of speed, pulling her arm back, jumping, and smashing the rock as hard as she could into one of its coal black eyes.

The creature let out an ear piercing screech, making her flinch, before raising one large paw and swinging it down. She dove out of the way, rolling over her shoulder before landing on her feet and pivoting back to the creature and running at it once again. For a few seconds she ducked and weaved and rolled out of the way of bites and slashes, looking for a good opportunity. She soon got one. The monstrosity roared, raising onto its hind legs to deliver a powerful smash with its front, thus leaving its belly open, and thusly the strange pulsing weak spot as well. In one fluid motion, Eve kicked up a sharp piece of wooden debris into her hand, pulled back and shoved it forward and into the weak spot as its large tail suddenly came behind her, pushing her forward forcefully into the enemy as well. The creature let out one last death cry as it toppled forward. She tried to rush away, but her distance had been lost, causing her be almost completely crushed by the monster.

Her vision blacked out for a second as the air left her lungs and pain shot through her body in waves. She was able to pull her arms free from their entrapment, pulling herself out from under the now dead creature slowly. She heaved a few breaths as she was finally free, looking up to where the others were fighting. Most of them seemed ok at the moment, about half of the invading monsters having been defeated. That is, until she saw Matilda facing off against one creature, seemingly having zero idea of the second one behind her, raising a spiked tail to spear her. Eve jumped into action once again, sprinting forward towards her.

"Yo! Mat! Watch your back!" She yelled. Matilda was confused for a second, looking behind her. Her expression turned to terror as the spiked tail was already shooting towards her. She was sure to be impaled. That is, until Eve hopped up onto a table, launching herself up, and wrapping an arm around Matilda's waist, dragging her down. The tail passed overhead by mere inches. The two landed on the ground, Matilda still tucked tightly under Eve's arm.

Matilda seemed bewildered as well as disoriented. Eve put her on the ground quickly, turning her attention over to the two monsters once again.

"Whoa. Thanks." Matilda said, shaking herself off and coming to Eve's side, who nodded.

"Any time. We should keep fighting though." She said. Matilda grinned, nodding before firing up her inhalers again and buzzing into the air. Eve leaned down, grabbing another sharp piece of debris. She dodged around the creatures before an idea came to her. She looked up at the small girl buzzing around them, blasting them when she could. Eve sprinted up as one of the creatures turned and hopped on its back, crawling up to its head and whacking it a few times. It growled, shaking furiously to try to get her off. Matilda looked surprised as Eve gave her a thumbs up. Matilda soon realized why, as the creature reared up on its back legs with a roar, leaving it open.

Matilda took the chance, blasting a stream of flames at the weak spot. The creature roared before collapsing, leaving one more left. Eve pushed off the dead one, still clutching the sharp rock, taking one last glance around. Only a few were left, who were being quickly taken down by the others. Turning back, Eve rushed forward, dropping onto her knees and using the momentum to slide her underneath the remaining monster. She stabbed at the weak spot a few times before rolling over sideways and out from under the monster. It fell to the floor, and she let herself breathe hard as sweat shone on her forehead. She tilted her head, looking to see what had happened to the others. All the creatures were dead, laying still on the ground as the group cheered. They jogged over, standing above her. Eve laughed slightly.

"What. A. Ride. I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say you're gonna tranq me now, huh?" She said. Ruby nodded.

"Yeah. Can't have you going off and telling everybody in the school. Although most of them are already in the loop. We're just gonna ask you a few questions." She replied. Eve shrugged as Matilda once again turned her inhalers on her, and with a small pop, something stuck in her neck. Soon, the world turned black.


	10. Waking up

Eve regained consciousness slowly, her senses and memories beginning to come back to her. She kept her eyes closed, but she could feel and hear what was happening around her. She was sitting in some kind of chair with her hands strapped to the arm rests in a dark room with a small light above. Interrogation room most likely. She heard familiar voices from the other side of the room.

"Seriously. How did she even slip past the people in there?" Said the voice of Ruby.

"Its a little bit too easy actually. I did it when we had the whole thing with Simon." Replied Duncan's voice.

"Hey. I thought we all agreed never to speak of that ordeal ever again." Heathcliff jutted in.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." Duncan apologized.

"Never mind that. What are we gonna do? Wipe her mind, or what?" Matilda interrupted.

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. Personally, I want to know what all those fancy moves she pulled were. She might be a spy. Or an assassin. We never know." Ruby said.

"Arabanaga!" cried Julio. There were a few clicks a second later.

"Sorry, I said that might be likely. She just kinda popped up out of nowhere and has all these crazy skills! She has reflexes like a cat I tell ya." He elaborated. There was a sudden twittering above Eve's head, as well as a feeling of something hovering above her.

"Well, why don't you ask her? Miss Eve has been awake for a good minute now." Said a sudden British type voice, very close to what she would say old fashioned people spoke like. Eve chuckled slightly.

"Yep. You caught me. I have no idea how you knew that, but yeah." She said, eyes still closed. Her glasses weren't there.

"Oh. OH. She's seriously been awake? Okay. Well, we need to ask you a few questions." Ruby said.

"That's all well and good, but would you mind giving me my sunglasses back first?" Eve replied.

"Why do you need your sunglasses?" Jackson asked. Eve shrugged. She would have put her hands up in the gesture, but they were still strapped down.

"More comfortable that way." She said.

"Oh. Alright then. They better not be some kind of weapon." said Matilda. In a second, her sunglasses were back on Eve's face. She opened her eyes. Like she thought, it was obviously some sort of interrogation room, with metal walls and a heavy door on the other side of the room. There was a long table in front of her, and sitting on the other side of it, was the group of kids she had suspected. A small lightbulb cast a beam of light down onto the the group and herself. Above her head flitted a small little ball, buzzing and clicking." She raised her brows at it.

"What's that?" She asked, motioning to it with her head.

"My name is Benjamin. A supercomputer helping the NERDS with various important tasks and missions." The ball chirped. Eve raised her eyebrows.

"Alright then. Supercomputer. Wow. What kind of sci-fi movie did I just pop into? Also what do you mean by helping nerds? I'm lost here." She said, her voice still cool, no matter how much she was freaking out on the inside.

"We aren't going to tell you anything until you start answering our questions first." Matilda said.

"That's fair." Eve replied bluntly, leaning back in the chair. She looked around at them. She could tell they were all tense and suspicious of her. She didn't exactly blame them. If she was part of some kind of secret organization, she would be scared to be found out too. She crossed one leg over the other.

"Alrighty. You want to ask questions? Shoot. Can't exactly do much else at the moment now can I?" She said. The group looked back and forth between eachother before going back to her.

"No, I don't suppose you can. Just know that if you lie, I'll know. So you better tell the truth." Ruby said. Eve shrugged, slightly confused, but she put it aside for the thought that she would probably be explained things after this ordeal. What a day.

{woops. sorry about the late upload. i just got sick and its slowing me down a bit. theres a possibility i might go on hiatus for a few days until im better bit for now im gonna try to keep up.}


	11. Interrupted interrogation

The way the other children were staring at her so intently made Eve more than a little uncomfortable. Ruby had laced her fingers together and was staring into her eyes. Or, well, sunglasses.

"Ok, first question, are you a spy or an assassin or an agent of enemy lines?" she asked. Eve shook her head.

"Nope. Not as far as I know anyway." she replied, unable to help the slightly sarcastic tone that seeped into her voice. She was just more than a little annoyed at being strapped down to a chair god knows where, and interrogated. It was understandable, but still annoying. Ruby seemed to notice, and glared slightly.

"Alright, that's true. Next question, if you're not a spy or an assassin or anything of that type, how did you get those skills we saw?" She asked. Eve groaned, rolling her eyes.

"My family likes having me well prepared. I've been doing martial arts and weapons training practically since I could walk. You have a tendency to get those skills when you have to do wall sits and plank for multiple hours every day with no breaks." She answered. That made the group of kids all cringe with sympathetic looks on their faces.

"Dang. Even we don't go that hard with our training usually." Matilda said. Eve shrugged.

"You get used to it after a few years." She said, waving it off.

"Okay. Truth. Next one. Did you share those photos on your phone with anybody else?" She asked.

"Yeah, one. My little sister. I was already talking to her about the weird things here before anyway." Eve replied. Ruby's eyebrows furrowed, looking at the others.

"Nobody else? How about your parents? Are you sure your sister didn't tell anybody?" She questioned tensely. Eve shook her head.

"Definitely not. Mom's too drunk off her...butt to even really hear what we have to say, or at least make any sense of it anyway. We don't tell her much of anything. And my dad is always caught up in business and crap, barely has any time to call or do any of that." She said, a slightly harsh tone in her voice.

"As for my sister, she's the most tight lipped person I've ever met." she finished. There were another few sympathetic glances from the group, although for different reasons.

"Fine then. Do you-" Ruby began, but Jackson suddenly butted in.

"Why do you say y'all?" He asked. Matilda rammed him with an elbow, making him double over in pain.

"I was gonna ask that!" She said. Eve snorted, rolling her shoulders.

"I grew up in texas, and my mom is from there too, so I picked up on it a bit." She explained. The others made a few noises of understanding, although Ruby seemed a little less than amused. She rolled her eyes, looking back at her.

"Great. Now that that's out of the way, do you-" She started, but the door on the other side of the room suddenly opened, and in stepped the janitor. Except he was wearing a sharp grey suit and held a long white cane in his hand, using it to help him hobble along. Eve raised her brows at him in a confused manner.

"And what, may I ask, are you doing?" he asked to the group. They started talking over eachother all at once, but eventually Ruby held out her hands, stopping them.

"Sorry boss, we got found out. We were interrogating the suspect." She said. The janitor glared before rubbing a hand on his face and through his hair with an exasperated look.

"Have I not told you that you can't perform interrogation without my knowledge? We've been over this." he said. More confusion piled onto Eve. She was starting to get a headache. The group and the man all began to talk at once, a flurry of attempted explanations and scoldings. Her headache began to build even more. She felt the conflicting emotions of the two parties as they argued, making her tenser by the second. She couldn't stand it. Her cool facade dropped for a moment.

"CAN EVERYONE SHUT UP AND PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????" She cried loudly. The talking stopped immediately, all attention suddenly drawing to her. It was completely silent for a moment, as the other parties looked between the other. The janitor sighed, rubbing his face again.

"Alright. All of you, out. I'll deal with this for now. Benjamin, stay and help me." He said, waving his hands at the others. They quickly exited after he gave them all a harsh glare. He took one last, long sigh, before he looked back to Eve.

"I'm sure you're confused, so let's start at the top. My name is Mr. Brand. I am the director of the national espionage rescue and defence society. Otherwise known as the NERDS."


	12. Explanation and upgrade

Eve was quiet for a minute after the explanation, continuing to stare down Brand with an unreadable expression. It was quite obviously beginning to make him very nervous. Finally, Eve sat back, eyebrows furrowing.

"You realize how absolutely insane this would sound if I hadn't seen it myself? An organization of children with superpowers saving the world from villains. Do you realize how absolutely and utterly ridiculous it sounds? Its like something out of a sci-fi movie. Not to mention semi kind of inhumane. Literal children. In life or death scenarios. With actual villains. Where they could very likely die. I have a lot of things I want to say, but I'm not going to." She said. Brand nodded, sighing.

"Yes, I know. It's weird. But you don't have to worry about the last part. We make sure to train our operatives in various mixed martial arts, as well as using their upgrades to their maximum potential before we send them out. And we do have to let go of some members because of various reasons. Recently an entire group of operatives have gone rouge, and we have been unable to capture them as of yet. We used to only have six, but after a certain incident, we got close to half of the school in, making over three hundred. As I said, various things happened and we had to let go of some members, along with the whole rouge thing, so we currently are at one hundred sixty seven members." He replied, setting his arms on the table.

Eve once again paused to take in the information, thinking it over.

"Alright. Makes sense. One question that I will ask, however, is what's going to happen now? You've told me everything, but if memory serves, you're likely just going to erase my memory so as to keep the secret. Why tell me all of this?" She asked curiously.

"Well, because I see some potential in you. According to what we've seen on the surveillance footage, you have shown a good amount of knowledge about fighting, and not to mention you saved one of our agents from what could have been a very painful death, which I have to thank you for. Anyway, you seem like a good candidate for an agent, and I would like to know if you would joint the team." He answered truthfully. Eve blinked, bewildered.

"And what if I said no?" She said.

"Then we would wipe your memory and send you off."

"Fair enough." Eve crossed her legs, closing her eyes. She thought for a minute, weighing in her options. Finally, she shrugged.

"Know what? What the heck. You got yourself an agent." She said. Brand smiled slightly.

"Great. Hold on, let me get you out of that chair." He replied, standing up and walking around to her, unlocking her wrists from the straps. She rubbed them a bit, cracking her knuckles with her palms in a non threatening manner.

"Thanks." She said, nodding to him. He nodded back before gesturing over to the door.

"Follow me." He said. Eve did so, matching his pace as he opened the door and walked out, holding it for a second so she could exit. When she looked around, she couldn't help but be impressed. The two were standing in a large, dome shaped room held up by various columns. Different colored tiles spanned the floor, as well as various work stations with tons of scientists, and a few different children milling around. On the walls were different tv screens, each showing something different. And in the middle of the room, was a large circular table with a hologram of earth spinning in a slow circle above it.

She suddenly noticed the group of children from earlier standing next to said table. Julio, or "Flinch" as she had been informed, noticed her, pointing and saying something to the others before waving. She waved back as the other five children's attention drew over to her. She turned away, hurriedly following Brand again, as she had fell behind slightly.

"Okay. Wow. Nice place." She remarked, still scanning the area. Brand chuckled.

"Indeed it is. Indeed it is." He said. The two came to a large metal door, and he pressed a button on it, causing it to slide open.

"This, is the upgrade room. Where, as the title suggests, you will be getting your upgrades. Step inside please, I'll be right there in a second." He said. Eve nodded, stepping inside. It was bare, but had a few different panels and things spanning all across the walls. A window suddenly appeared on the side, showing Brand standing inside some kind of observation room. His voice came over an intercom somewhere in the room.

"Now, I'm sure this is probably going to hurt a bit, but please try to stay calm. It likely won't hurt all THAT much. Depending on what your upgrades are going to be. It's going to scan for your weaknesses, and when it finds one, it'll inject you with nanobytes, which will give you the powers according to the weakness it found." He explained as a green lazer began to scan over her. She nodded.

"Yeah, you told me a bit about that." She replied, looking at a hologram of herself that was beginning to make itself known in front of her.

"SUBJECT IS IN GOOD PHYSICAL CONDITION. NO PHYSICAL WEAKNESS FOUND." A sudden electronic voice said. Eve raised a brow. A few more seconds passed, the computer continuing to scan her. It suddenly stopped.

"WEAKNESS FOUND. SUBJECT HAS HIGH EMPATHIC AND ENERGY SENSING ABILITIES. BEGINNING UPGRADE." It said. Eve was suddenly pushed on her back by a table that came up from underneath her, strapping down her arms and legs. The panels on the walls opened up, and long tentacle like things with syringes on the end came out. She tensed a bit, but took a breath.

"Don't worry! Again, it probably won't hurt much! Just stay calm!" Brand said. She nodded, and a needle went into her neck. She tensed again, shivering. Things started going black. What fun.


	13. New feelings

Eve blinked her eyes open blearily, pulling herself into a sitting position and looking around. She was still in the upgrade room.

"Oh good! You're awake. Sorry about that. The first time putting in nanobytes can be slightly shocking to the body, which has a bad tendency to make people pass out." A woman next to her said. Eve scanned her, remembering her to be the librarian. However, that wasn't the strangest thing. The strange thing, was that there was a faint yellow aura around her. She could feel that she was happy. Eve blinked in confusion, looking beside her, where Brand stood. He had a similar yellow aura, however much fainter than than woman's.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that's fine. But why are you guys glowing?" Eve asked. The two blinked at her, before looking at eachother for a moment. A purple color began to fade into the auras slightly.

"Glowing? We're...not glowing. If you're seeing something we're not, that's likely your new upgrades at work. According to the computer, you were given energy sight and manipulation." Brand said, the purple aura fading. Eve stared at the two, observing the light around them.

Now that she was informed of it, she did notice something different. The world around her seemed just a bit more alive. Energy that she hadn't been able to feel before zipped around in the air and in the walls, making it feel even stranger. She could even feel her own energy throughout her body. She flexed her hand and wiggled her fingers, focusing on manipulating that energy. Electricity darted across her fingertips and she jumped, looking back up at the two.

"Wow. That's freaky." She said bluntly. A small laugh came from the woman and Brand smirked a bit.

"It always is at first." He replied. Eve hopped from the table she was on, standing in front of the two with her arms crossed in a comfortable position.

"Uh, how long was I passed out?" She asked.

"About seven minutes, give or take." The librarian said. Eve hummed, satisfied with the answer.

"Alright. That's fine. Well, what do I do now? You gonna show me the ropes or give me training or what?" She asked, raising a brow. Brand patted her shoulder, walking over to the wall and opening a panel with a few buttons.

"All of that will come tomorrow. For now we're sending you back up. At lunch tomorrow, ask for the creamed corn." He said, pressing one. Eve opened her mouth to question the man, but a tube suddenly dropped around her, sucking her upwards. She was spun and flipped around a few different pathways, before she was suddenly shot forward, sending her stumbling and flailing out into an empty hallway out of a locker. She hopped a couple times in a struggle to gain back her balance, but finally set both feet on the ground, standing straight up again. She let out a shaky breath, pushing her sunglasses, which by some miracle had stayed on throughout the exit process, and rubbed her neck.

She looked up at the clock, observing the time. Almost the end of the day, but she still had a few classes she needed to get to. A good excuse for being gone would be in order. She quickly jogged down the halls back to the class she was in, making up some excuse about having to have a long call with her family due to a small accident concerning alcohol. Not that it wasn't entirely a probable situation that happened all to often anyway. She was impressed that the whole situation in the library seemed to have been completely covered up by the time she had gotten there. They had used an excuse that they were remodelling the place, so it had been cut off for the time being. Clever, but simple. The entire rest of the day seemed to breeze by, mostly because she was busier focusing on all the new feelings and sights that were caused by the upgrades in her body. Very interesting. She would have to see what she would be able to do with them. Once she got back home, she did tell her sister that she had found out what was up, but she didn't specify what it was, much to Tommy's chagrin.


	14. Lunch endeavors

The day for Eve started out a bit hectic to say the least. She forgot her alarm clock broke, and ended up sleeping in as a result. When she woke up and saw the time, she kicked her entire morning into high gear, quickly waking her sister before taking a very small shower and sprinting back downstairs and got out the cereal whilst attempting to wake up her still passed out mother. After that, she grabbed her skateboard and rode her sister to school before arriving at her own. She kicked the door to her classroom open just as the teacher was beginning to take attendance, chest heaving for breath. The entire class stared at her as she combed her fingers through her hair and plopped down into her seat. She would place that as the fastest morning she had to get going yet. The day from there moved on normally much to her relief. Still, despite all that, the world around her was still abuzz with new sensations, which distracted her more than anything. She also grew tenser as lunch drew closer, and still questioning wether this whole thing was a good idea or not.

She snapped out of her thoughts when the lunch bell rang. She took a breath, steeling herself for whatever was going to happen.

"Alright then. Here we go." She muttered to herself, making her way to the cafeteria. She stepped in, jogging briskly over to the small room where the food was served, snatching a tray from its stack. She was eventually at the front of the line, and she stood in front of a strangely manly lunch lady. Eve eyed her before shrugging.

"I heard from a little birdie that I should probably get the creamed corn." She said. The lunch lady raised a brow at her.

"You sure? There's no going back on that." She asked. Eve nodded.

"Yeah. Pretty sure. I would make a snarky comment on it, but as the old saying goes, there are eyes and ears everywhere."She replied. The lunch lady shrugged, scooping something onto her tray. Eve gave it a look, but accepted it, quickly exiting the area and plopping herself down into a seat. She poked at the food, gazing intently into it. She wondered why Brand had told her to get it.

Her eye drew to something in the food, and her eyebrows furrowed, poking at it. It was tiny and metallic, like some kind of device. Oh. This must be the reason then. She sighed, deciding there wasn't any going back, and flicked it into her mouth, swallowing. She coughed and choked a bit as she felt it run up the back of her throat and into her nose, settling there. She only had a second to get used to the feeling when a sudden screech filled her ears. She flinched, gritting her teeth. However, it stopped as soon as it started, and a small voice filled her head.

"Welcome to the NERDS organization. Are you consenting of being an agent? This is your last chance to walk away." The voice said. She raised her brows and blinked a few times before shaking it off.

"Yeah." She answered quietly.

"Consent detected. Now testing communication functions." The voice said again.

Eve's nose twitched before she let out more than a few loud sneezes. She rubbed her nose, confusion settling in her mind. The loud screech started up suddenly, making her grit her teeth and place her head on the table, growling lowly. The screech lowered itself, becoming only a small buzz in her ears before fading entirely.

"Communication implant functioning properly. Agent name: Spark. Change name?" The voice questioned. Eve thought for a moment. It wasn't exactly the most correct name, but she couldn't think of anything else.

"No." She said.

"No name change detected. Welcome, agent Spark. Prepare for entrance into the playground in 3 2 1." The sprinklers above the room began to go off, showering all the children in water. The room quickly began to evacuate the vicinity. Eve only had a second to react before the chair she sat on suddenly dropped, shifting to make her slide off into a tunnel underneath. She was tossed and turned through different tunnels, before a blast of air caught her mid fall, placing her gently onto the ground. She looked up, and standing before her, was Brand.

"Welcome to the NERDS kid." He said.


	15. Evaluation room

Brand and Eve walked through the large room quickly, swerving around desks and stations with various blueprints and inventions stacked onto them. Eve took the chance to once again scan the area. Flashes of energy flickered back and forth from one place to another, crisscrossing with other lines and making increasingly confusing patterns. Eve shook her head, instead focusing forward to the man leading her.

"Uh, mind telling me where exactly we're going?" She asked. Brand blinked for a second before registering it.

"Oh, yes. Well, since you're new, we are going to need to assign you to a team. To do that, we do a couple tests to judge your strengths and whatnot so we can put you in a team that would be correct for your skill level. There are a lot of different teams here. We have the troublemakers, the losers, the geeks, and many others. We try to keep the teams as consistent as possible, skill wise anyway. Yesterday you fought with our first and most skilled team, the NERDS. Yes, it is the name of the entire organization as well, but like I said, we try to keep it as consistent as possible. Things have a tendency to get a bit messy if we don't, which I'm not going to get into. Anyway, back on topic. We currently have a few tests set up for you in the evaluation room. We will explain each one as they begin. It might be tiring, but don't worry, you'll have breaks in between every other test. Did I explain that alright?" He said.

Eve hummed, nodding in confirmation.

"Yeah, I understand. Sounds like fun." She replied. Brand laughed.

"We'll see. Not too many thought it was very fun after going through it for real." He answered. Eve simply shrugged, looking forward.

"Not related, but your codename system is probably screwy." She said bluntly. Brand's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

"The system decided that Spark was a good name for me. I mean, it would be good for people who's upgrades were actually making electricity or whatever, but my power was supposed to be energy sensing and manipulation. I wouldn't say that's a very fitting name. Don't get me wrong though, it's cool." She explained. Brand blinked, shaking his head.

"I guess so. I'll have it checked afterwards." He said, waving it off. Eve stayed quiet, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. She might have to take it off if she was going to be fighting.

On that matter, if she was a spy, she would probably be fighting a lot. She cringed slightly. She was going to need to find another whole style for that. Her dad was going to have a field day with that. She shrugged the thought off, shaking her head a bit and sighing.

"Here we are." Brand said suddenly, stopping his walk. Eve nearly slammed into him, but sidestepped just in time. She looked ahead to where a metal door with a small window on it sat. He placed his hand on a green scanner to the side of it.

"Welcome, Mr.Brand. What would you like to do today?" A small robotic voice asked.

"Register new agent to evaluation program." Brand replied. The scanner beeped a few times.

"Agent, please place hand on the scanner." the voice said. Brand nodded to Eve, gesturing to the scanner. She walked to it, putting her hand onto the scanner. It lit up, taking a few seconds before beeping once again.

"Handprint scanned. Please state your codename for full registry." It said.

"Spark." Eve answered. The scanner beeped once again, displaying a list of other codenames. She saw hers pop up at the top of the screen.

"Registry complete. Welcome, agent Spark. Please proceed into training room for evaluation." The voice said finally. The metal door slid open. Eve blinked over at Brand, who gestured inside.

"I'll be there in a second. I will be in an observation room to the side, where I can announce what you'll be doing." He said. Eve nodded, taking a breath before finally stepping inside. The room was large with metal panels spanning the entirety of it. A large window sat to the side of the room with different apparatuses, most likely to control what was happening. Brand soon appeared in said window, and she waved to him.

"Alright kid. This is probably going to be a pretty hard test, so you better be ready. Your first task is in hand to hand combat. For that, we will be sending in some robots that you will be fighting. You will fight them until either all required bots are taken down, or you are defeated. Are you ready?" He said through the intercom. Eve closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

"Ready as I'll ever be." She said finally. Brand pressed a button, and a large panel on the wall slid open. Eve readied herself. Either this was going to be fun, or a disaster.


	16. Flying fists and ripping off heads

A dull clanging echoed throughout the room as adult-sized, metal robots began to make their way through through the open hole in the wall, beginning to surround Eve. Eventually, the flow of bots stopped and the hole closed.

"Ready? Get moving." Brand's voice said through the intercom. Like a bullet out of a gun, as soon as he finished the sentence, Eve shot forward, already putting up her fists. She clocked one bot in the chin, sending its head flying off and hitting another, it's body falling to the ground. She immediately swept her leg behind her, knocking four bots off their feet. She grabbed onto one's leg, heaving it up before beginning to spin in circles, taking down any robot in her path. She finally let go of the bot, sending it flying into another group of bots and knocking them down like bowling pins. She spun on her heel, landing a vicious roundhouse kick to a bot behind her and leaving a deep dent. She took a few steps back, taking the chance to take a breath and quickly pull off her leather jacket and tie it around her waist, leaving her in a white t-shirt.

She swerved away from a robot's punch, latching onto its arm and using it to heave the hapless bot over her shoulder and onto the ground, where she quickly dispatched it with a stomp to the head. A sudden hard strike to her temple made her vision flash black for a second, making her stumble forward and nearly falling. She swirled around launching herself onto the bot that had hit her, clinging to it and pulling herself up as to block its vision. It stumbled around and occasionally smashed into other robots, pulling at her in an attempt to get her off. Once she had regained her bearings, she wrapped her arms around its head, put her legs on its shoulders, and pulled upward harshly, relieving the robot of its head. She turned her own head, staring over at the only bot left in the room. She tossed the robot head up and down in her hand for a moment before reeling back, and chucking it forward with deadly speed and accuracy. The other bot toppled over, red eyes dimming into black.

Eve looked over to the window in the side of the room with a slightly raised brow.

"No offence, but that was kinda easy. I'm assuming you made this test assuming most of the people who take it don't actually know what they're doing. Fighting wise I mean." She stated. Brand was standing there with an equally impressed, bewildered, and horrified look on his face. He shook it off however.

"You would be correct. Most children have very little experience in that. Although I wouldn't get too cocky. You're not done yet. I think that one might be a bit more your level." He replied, pointing a finger. Eve's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she suddenly froze as she realized. She hadn't been paying attention to her upgrades, or even using them at all for that matter. There was something behind her. She dropped to the ground as a giant fist grabbed at where she was standing just a bare second ago. She rolled away as a giant foot slammed down where she was, quickly hopping to her feet.

Before her stood a much, much larger bot. It was more round bodied than the others, with giant limbs and a small, round head to top it all off. She rushed around it, using it's slow speed to her advantage, and shot a punch at it. All she got for it was a sore fist. No dents or marks of any kind. She dodged out of the way of another swing, kicking at it's leg. Once again, nothing considerable happened. She weaved around the giant as she looked for weak points, chewing on the side of her cheek. She shook her head, running at it and hopping up on it's back. She clambered to its head, going to grab it. She was unable to, as its head suddenly retreated into it's body as it's arms and legs followed suite. She pushed herself off the now solid metal ball, confused. At least, until the bot began to roll straight at her like a deadly bowling ball that is. She dived out of it's path, but it continued to roll at her. She knew if she didn't do something, she would more than likely end up being as flat as a pancake.

She grit her teeth, pushing up her sunglasses. She took a breath, focusing. An idea flashed into her head. It was about time she actually put her upgrades to use. She readied herself one last time before dodging the bot. As it rolled by, she shot her hand out and brushed it along it's side. With a small mental tug, she could feel the energy leaving the bot and flowing into her. She grinned, continuing the act of dodging it and pulling as much power out as she could while it rolled by. Soon, the robot was just barely rolling along. Her own body was tingling with the power she had pulled from the bot. She finally charged forward, reaching her hands out. She touched it and bolts of electricity shot out explosively, blasting the bot backwards against the wall and leaving Eve panting with a grin on her face. She looked over to the window once again and gave a thumbs up.

"That the last one, or you still have stuff to throw at me?" She asked. Brand had his arms crossed, a almost unnoticeable grin on his own face.

"No, that was the last one. Congratulations agent Spark. Not too many people have beat the big bot over there. You look tired." He replied. Eve rolled her eyes.

"No duh. But whatever. What's next?" She said.

"Next test is for stealth. We'll be using the upstairs for this one, you'll need it." He answered, pressing something on a panel in front of him. A tube came down on Eve, sucking her into it. She was propelled through a few different tunnels before being shot upwards. She flew out of a hole, landing firmly in a chair in the library. She blinked and looked around. The whole place had been fixed much to her surprise. Brand suddenly landed beside her, holding a small ball in his hands.

"Like I said, this test is about stealth. What you have to do, is simply keep away from this little ball here. Failure to do so may end in pain." He said. Eve shrugged and hummed in affirmation.

"Ready? Hide." Brand said, pressing a button on the ball. Eve didn't stick around to see what happened, instead sprinting away into the rows of shelves.


	17. Not at all convenient

Eve darted between shelves, eventually sliding behind one, keeping her eyes on the area around her. She lowered her breathing, listening. For a minute, it was completely quiet. It didn't stay like that for too much longer. Soon enough she began to hear a faint whirring sound on the other side of the shelf she hid behind. She peeked between the shelf to the other side, scanning back and forth. Floating through the aisle was the metal ball that Brand had before. It's center glowed a bright red color as it clicked and spun, presumably looking for her. To her surprise, the ball suddenly buzzed, a grey blob shooting out of it's side. The blob shifted, turning into an exact duplicate of the original. It buzzed, floating up and over the shelf, right over where Eve knelt. She jerked, immediately springing to her feet and sprinting back down the aisle. She felt something hot shoot barely an inch by her shoulder, and she spun away, launching herself sideways.

She rolled away and back behind a cart, gritting her teeth. She glanced up at the clock. Still school hours. She hissed out a half curse, taking a risky glance around the cart to check where the apparent laser balls were. She made a small choking noise when she saw one of said balls floating in front of her face, glowing red. She once again took off, quite nearly running into the other one of the rounded laser bots. She dodged into another aisle, looking around. She got an idea, snatching up a book and punting it over the shelf behind her. It landed with a small thud onto the ground, and when she heard it, she creeped away another couple aisles down attempting to be as quiet as possible. She glanced both ways at the end of the aisle, checking for the little robots, before shooting across the room and hiding behind the main desk. For a few minutes, she was safe. Like last time however, it didn't stay that way. There was a faint whirring, and one of the bots floated around the desk. She jumped, backpedaling and nearly falling as she took a running start away from the thing.

She slid to a screeching halt as three more bots appeared in front of her. She dodged to the side, but was met with another laser ball.

"Crap. Fuuuuuuuuudging icicles." She breathed to herself, just barely cutting off her foul language once again. It was a force of habit at this point. She bent her knees, and just as the balls started glowing a brighter and brighter red in preparation, she bolted to the side. She felt heat just barely miss her as she snatched a book sitting idly on a table, twisting her body and chucking it at the bots. It took out two of them, sending them falling to the ground. She immediately turned, going back towards the aisles. She stumbled when she felt a hot zap strike her shoulder and gripped it, gritting her teeth. She hissed another half curse as she darted into the aisles. She looked around, searching for some kind of hiding spot. It didn't seem like there was anything she hadn't already used as a spot.

She let out an exhale of breath, still massaging her injured shoulder. That zap had hurt and she didn't plan on having it happen again. She was also sure it had burned a hole into her shirt. Great. Tommy was going to ask about that. It was quickly becoming apparent how inconvenient the library was for things like stealth tests. Sure, it was convenient when you wanted to look for books on things like marine biology and species of flowers, but none of that exactly applied to this, now did it? Eve looked up. A sudden idea popped into her head. She had noticed the little laser robot ball things, whatever they were called, didn't float above a certain height. Or even look up for that matter. Her eyebrows furrowed. If the plan failed, or she was wrong, she could either end up with a broken ankle, or end up getting zapped anyway. She sighed. Worth the risk she guessed. Making sure no bots were in the area, she carefully climbed up onto the shelf, steading herself. Keeping her eyes on her target, she bent her knees a few times in preparation, before leaping upwards.


	18. A little rest

Brand strode quickly into the library, eyes searching for the child that had been partaking in her test just a few minutes ago.

"Eve? Where are you? We lost you on the cameras. The test is over." He called out, turning in a small circle to scan the area. Suddenly, a cool voice echoed from above him.

"Sup." It said. Brand looked up, and his jaw nearly dropped. Perched on the slowly spinning ceiling fan with one leg crossed over the other and looking down at him with shaded eyes, was none other than Eve. She had probably the most relaxed posture he had seen on someone, despite the absolutely ridiculous look of the situation.

"Um, hello? How did you get up there?" Brand asked. Eve simply shrugged.

"I have a good vertical jump. Used the bookcase." She said bluntly, pointing to said bookcase. Brand blinked in sheer bewilderment.

"Ah. I...see. Creative." He said slowly. Eve shrugged again.

"Yeah. Sure. But can you, like, grab some beanbags I can jump onto or something? I mean, I could probably land safely if I rolled right, but I ain't risking that anytime soon. I like having an unbroken body thanks very much." She replied. Brand blinked again before finally shaking his head and brushing off any thoughts he had on the situation.

"Sure. One second." He said. Quickly rushing to do just that. He soon arrived back, pulling a good few bean bags behind him. He pushed them under her before backing up.

"That good?" He asked. Eve gave him a thumbs up.

"Yup. Coming down now." She answered. She grabbed the edge of the fan blade she was sitting on, waiting until she was lined up, before pushing herself off. She landed on the pile of beanbags with a small 'whump' noise. She rolled off, brushing off her clothes.

"Epic." She said.

"Yes. You did a good job. Although I can't help but notice you seem to avoid using your upgrades. Usually all the children we've tested like to use their upgrades to get through the test." Brand replied. Eve hummed, crossing her arms.

"Dunno. Seems like cheating. It's a test, and using the upgrades for it seems like a handicap." She explained. Brand thought about it for a moment before accepting the answer.

"Well, if you want to look at it that way, that's one way to do it. You've been doing exceptionally well despite it." He said. Eve shrugged once again.

"Eh. I do a lot of stuff. Martial arts, weapons training, motorcycling, lots of stuff. Mom and dad like having us prepared for literally anything. Kinda overbearing if you ask me. Thanks though." She answered, waving it off. Brand gave her a look.

"You can drive a motorcycle?" He asked. Eve nodded.

"Yeah. Car too. Tommy is really annoying about it. She's always wanting me to drive her around the track at top speed." She said. Brand raised a brow at her.

"Tommy?" He said.

"My kid sister." Eve elaborated. Brand gave her another bewildered look, but decided not to ask about it. He suddenly remembered something, and he walked to the front desk, taking a bottle of water from it before tossing it to her. She caught it and popped the cap off, taking a quick drink.

"Thanks." She said simply. She walked to the desk before turning around and lifting herself backwards onto it.

"So. What's the next test supposed to be?" She asked.

"Long range combat." Brand replied. Eve raised a brow.

"You mean, like, guns?" She said.

"Yes, I mean guns." He answered. Eve stared at him. An uncomfortable feeling settled in her stomach.

"Do you guys have these kids using guns?" She asked. Brand nodded in confirmation.

"On very rare occasions, yes. Usually just tranquilizers." He said. Eve chewed on the side of her cheek before humming.

"Sounds fine to me."


	19. Bang bang into the room

Eve and Brand talked for a few more minutes as the clock ticked away. Eve glanced over at it.

"I'm gonna be done with the test by the time school ends right?" She said. Brand gave her a questioning glance.

"Most likely, unless you take longer than average to complete the tests. Why?" He asked.

"Gotta get Tommy home." Eve replied, shrugging her shoulders. Brand blinked, but shook it off.

"Alright, well, you won't have to worry about that. But no matter, break time is up. Mind sitting down at the table over there?" He said.

"Sure." Eve answered, walking to the table he had gestured to and sitting down. Brand walked over and sat down as well, and reached under the table to press something. The chairs the two sat in suddenly jerked and dumped them forward, sending them plummeting into two holes in the ground.

Once again, Eve was tumbling through a series of pipes and tunnels of the like, desperately attempting to get her bearings. Luckily the fall didn't last long, and she was once again cushioned by a blast of air to land safely on the ground below. Looking around, she saw she was in a large shooting range. A second later, Brand suddenly landed beside her.

"Welcome to our shooting range. We actually didn't have this until about a month ago. This is where your next test is. It's fairly simple. We give you a tranquilizer gun and some clips, and you try to hit the targets that appear. You said you know how to handle a gun right?" He explained. Eve nodded.

"Yup. No problem." She replied. Brand clapped once, walking over to a button on the wall and pressing it. A small tray popped out of the wall and onto a counter in front of it along with a few clips of ammo.

He took them and walked back over to Eve before placing them in her hands.

"Ready to start?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure. Lets do it." Eve answered, walking over to a table and placing the ammo clips on it. Brand pressed another button, and a loud buzzing noise echoed through the room. Eve readied her gun and exhaled slowly. A target popped down from the ceiling. She quickly shot it. Another one popped out in a different location. She shot that one too. Two more popped up after that, then three, then four. She still had no problem landing shots on them. She popped the empty clip out, swiftly exchanging it for another with practiced ease. Three more targets later, they began moving. Sideways and up and down across the area, making her change where her shots went. The clock ticked away the minutes as the girl shot away at the moving targets in no time. It reminded her a bit of what her mother used to do. She cringed slightly, missing her shot in the process.

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts out before continuing to shoot. It luckily only lasted a few more minutes. A loud buzzer echoed from above once again, and all the targets retreated back into their holes. She placed the gun down, turning over to Brand, who was standing nearby.

"Good work. You hit almost all the targets. You even got a few center shots. More than I can say for some others." He said stepping to her. Eve waved it off.

"Thanks. What's the next test?" She replied.

"Straight to the point I see. Well, the next test isn't as simple or straightforward as the others we've given you. For the next test you will be locked in an escape room. To escape this room you will need to gather things in the environment as well as solve puzzles in order to get out. I would have to say, this is the most interesting test we have. After this one there is only one test left." He said. Eve hummed, crossing her arms with a look of interest on her face.

"Sounds great."


	20. Puzzle machine broke

Eve groaned loudly as she fiddled with the safes lock, frustrated. Only a couple minutes ago, Brand had led her into the room before locking her in. And according to the note on the floor, the first escape key was in the safe. However, it didn't seem like there was any code to it anywhere. She let herself fall on her butt, thinking hard. She tapped the floor before looking around on the walls. To the left were four holes in different shapes, like something was meant to be placed in them. Below the holes was some sort of panel with a keyhole in it. In the back of the room where she currently sat, was a safe and a large painting of a rain drop, a cloud, a thunderbolt, and a rainbow. To the right were multiple colored buttons. And finally, in front of the room, was the door. It looked just like a regular wooden door to her. She stood up, looking around and chewing her cheek in thought. She looked up at the painting, suddenly thinking of something. She reached up and grabbed it before pulling it down. Behind it were the numbers 2, 7, 1, and 4.

"Of course it would be behind the painting. I'm an idiot." Eve muttered as she crouched back down to the safe and placed the numbers in. It quickly clicked open. Inside was a small object shaped like a lighting bolt. She grabbed it, looking back to where the holes in the wall were. She walked over, pushing the object into it's hole. She jerked, stumbling back and grabbing her arm as a strong electric shock shot through it and a loud buzzer echoed from above. She dropped the object, glaring at the offending hole. She shook her head, turning away from it. She glanced at the painting she had taken down and rubbed her face.

"It has an order. Of course it has an order." She grumbled. She had enough puzzles just to get through her house. She didn't prefer more. She turned to the color buttons, taking a second to think. She glanced at the painting again before looking back at the buttons. She pressed the buttons in the series of a rainbow, and a panel clicked open on the wall. Easy.

She reached in, grabbing two objects out of the hole. There was a rainbow shaped object, and a flashlight with a colored lens on it. She blinked, turning on the flashlight and dropping the rainbow object. She flicked the light around the room, seeing nothing at first. She looked up however, and there was a large word drawn in invisible ink across the ceiling. Down, it read. She narrowed her eyes, looking down. There was nothing she could see. She sighed, dropping to the ground and beginning to feel around it. Soon enough, her fingers caught on something. She raised her brow, pulling on it. A piece of metal came up off the floor, revealing a small puzzle. It was the one with the rings and the three sticks you had to get across. She couldn't remember it's name. Once again, easy enough. Once she had solved it, one of the sticks popped up. She removed it, and it revealed a rain drop shaped object and a key. She pulled out both.

She placed the object down but took the key over to the keyhole in the wall. She pressed it in and it swung open to reveal another puzzle. It was a picture made up of squares that were all mismatched. Yet another familiar one, and easy to solve. Once finished, the puzzle slid away, revealing the last object she needed. She snatched it, before putting all of the objects in with the order from the painting. Yet another panel slid open, and sitting there was a bobby pin. She sighed, grabbing it and walking to the door in front of the room. She pushed it in the lock, fiddling around. Minutes passed with no results. She growled, fiddling with it even more. Suddenly, there was a snap. She pulled the bobby pin out, only to realize that part of it had snapped off. She stared. Then stared some more. Her hand gripped into a fist.

"Oh come on!" She growled angrily. She lifted her leg up, giving the door a hard, vicious kick with a angered yell. She was surprised, however, when the door suddenly cracked, busting open.

She stared at the now open door, before looking back out of the room. Standing in front of her, was Brand. His mouth was dropped slightly, staring at her in slight shock. She looked around, seeing that a few of the people who were in the room were also frozen and staring at her.

"Uh, door broke." Eve said dumbly. Brand stared some more before shaking his head and composing himself.

"Ah, yes. Of course. We can get that fixed. But, uh, congratulations on getting out. Despite that not being the intended final escape." He replied. Eve held out the broken bobby pin.

"Bobby pin broke." She said bluntly. He blinked before taking it from her.

"I see. We'll make sure to get sturdier ones next time." He laughed awkwardly. Eve hummed, shrugging it off. She was just glad to be out of the room. Only one test to go. Then she would be a full on spy. What a weird thought.


	21. Truth or lie

Eve plopped down into a seat at a table, a couple minutes after she had taken a small break. She recognized the room she sat in very clearly. It was where this whole spy thing started after all. It was currently empty, save for her. She whistled as she waited a few minutes until the door opened. To her slight surprise, it was Ruby who stepped through, carrying a small box with wires attached to it under her arm.

"Oh, hey puffball. What's up? Fancy seeing you here." Eve greeted. Ruby placed the box down, unwrapping the cords from it.

"This is the last test, as you probably already know. Did boss tell you that it was a lie detector test?" She said. Eve nodded.

"Yeah. That's all though." She replied. Ruby hummed, finishing unwrapping the cords before walking to Eve.

"Right. This test is more or less about making up believable lies and keeping calm under pressure. You would be surprised how many people aren't able to do that." She said, setting about attaching the cords to Eve's body.

"Never would have guessed." She said. Ruby suddenly started scratching at her back.

"Tone down the sarcasm. I'm allergic to it." She huffed. Eve blinked, raising a brow.

"Allergic to sarcasm? Weird. Does that have something to do with your upgrades?" She asked. Ruby nodded and plopped down onto the seat across from her, pulling the box to her.

"Yes. My upgrades boost my allergies to be able to take in information from the world around me, that makes me basically near psychic. For example, I'm allergic to lies. That's what we're going to be using in this last test. And before you ask, no, the box isn't the lie detector. That's just the shocker for if I can tell you're lying." She explained. Eve made a face, but laughed it off.

"Wow. Ok. Great. Let's just get this done with then." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. Ruby nodded, crossing her arms in front of her on the table.

"So. Where did you learn all those tricks you have?" She asked. Eve mumbled something under her breath before shaking her head.

"Uh, all over the place I guess. Just wherever we lived at the time. Texas, Arizona, California, Ohio, and those are just a couple." She replied truthfully. Ruby hummed, her eyes seeming to narrow for a second before accepting the answer.

"Alright. Do your parents sign the back of your undies?" She asked. Eve blinked, making a small face.

"Um, they used to? Not now. That's an awkward question." She answered awkwardly. She suddenly blinked, having the realization that she was trying to get her to lie. She was asking awkward questions in order to get her to lie, thusly testing the ability to tell believable lies. She smiled slightly. If that was the case, she just had to play along. The next few minutes, Ruby continued to ask series of awkward and embarrassing questions, all of which Eve answered.

Finally, Ruby stopped, an unreadable look on her face.

"Well. That's the end of the test. I didn't even shock you once, surprisingly. Congratulations. You're the first person to ever do that." She said. Eve picked up on the slightly impressed tone in her voice. She took off all the wires she had attached, and after it was wrapped up, they exited the room. Ruby waved at Brand, who glaced back from what he was doing, which seemed to be scolding one of the scientists. He walked over, arms crossed.

"Hello Pufferfish. Spark. How did the test go?" He asked.

"Uh, she's very truthful. I didn't actually even shock her once. Because I didn't even detect her lie once." She replied. Brand blinked in surprise.

"Oh. Well then. I suppose that's good then. Alright, that was the end of the tests, so you are free to go. We'll have your team by tomorrow." He said. Eve nodded as the man walked away. She then looked over to Ruby.

"Can I tell you something?" She asked her. Ruby blinked.

"Sure?" She said curiously. Eve smirked.

"I lied on every question after the first two." She said. She walked away, already knowing of Ruby's dropped jaw. She was telling the truth on that statement.


	22. The team

Eve rolled down the halls towards her next class, mind on other things. It was the day after she did all her testing or evaluation or whatever they called it, but so far she hadn't been contacted by Brand. She supposed it was fine. She was a patient person. She put her foot on the ground outside her class, flipping her skateboard up under her arm once more. She went to enter the class, but her attention was drawn back by a small snap. She glanced over at the noise.

"Speak of the devil." She muttered to herself as she saw Brand standing at the end of the hall. She jogged over and waved.

"Sup. You finish with all the stuff to figure out my team?" She asked. The man coughed into his hand and nodded.

"Ah, yes. Would you mind coming down to The Playground with me to officially assign you?" He replied. Eve simply shrugged. She could catch up on class later.

"Yeah, no problem. Lets go." She said. The two strode down the halls, arriving at the janitors closet. Eve held back from sighing. It seemed like almost everywhere in the entire school had some kind of entrance into The Playground. She shrugged it off however. Brand pushed a few hidden buttons on the wall before pressing his hand to it, and they were immediately dropped into two holes. They landed in The Playground, and started walking forward.

"Now. Most kids either have very little training, or none at all. But you were quite a different case, and needless to say you did very well. It was a hard choice to which team to put you on. But in the end we did, in fact, find one. Congratulations agent Spark, you get to be a part of the original team." He explained, stopping in the middle of the room near the table. At the table sat the same kids she had been interacting with nearly her entire time her. A slight surprise, but nothing she couldn't deal with. She raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey gang. Nice to be here." She stated. The others waved back. All of them seemed to have a more green light around them, likely of happiness or content. This was save for Ruby, who had a hint of orange in her aura. Eve didn't exactly know what the orange meant, but she would figure it out at some point. For now, she brushed it off.

"Hey! Cool to have you on the team. Kinda surprising too." Matilda greeted, a small grin on her face.

"Yeah, it's cool to have someone else as cool as me on the team." Jackson laughed. Heathcliff shoved him with an elbow, rolling his eyes.

"It's cool to just have another member. We were needing some new recruits anyway to deal with those things. We're still working out where they came from." Duncan said. Eve sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Ok, these things have got to be called something other than "those things" or whatever. If we have to keep dealing with them, shouldn't we give them, like, an actual name?" She said. Everyone stared at her in a slight bewilderment before looking at one another.

"I mean, I guess?" Heathcliff replied, unsure. Eve let out a breath and going to speak, before being cut off by a sneeze that was mimicked by everyone at the table.

"Everyone to the school bus. We have a mission to get to. Move it!" Brand said through the com link. Eve blinked, lookijf about. She hadn't noticed he had left. But she put it out of her mind as she quickly followed the group out of the room and into another. She recognized the room from when she had hidden behind the bleachers. They arrived in front of what plainly looked like a school bus and boarded it, sitting down. Brand stepped into the bus, followed by a woman that Eve recognized as the librarian. It would have confused her, but in her time in the school, she had seen much stranger things. Brand turned to the children, massaging his temple.

"Now, I'm sorry to have to put you to work so soon, but we have some things to do."


	23. Water under the bridges

The school bus blasted through space as Spark sat with a perfectly straight face staring at the wall. She was once more hit with the complete and utter ridiculousness of the entire situation. She moved to a new state, and suddenly her life was snowballing down a deep hill and destroying whatever she had previously thought was possible in current times. She was suddenly in a rocket flying through space, newly upgraded and dubbed a spy, and on her way to her first mission. What a time to be alive. She had almost completely tuned out the briefing they were being given. Something about a villain who was trying to flood Venice. Her mind finally snapped back as a voice called back to them.

"We're over the drop point!" The man's voice called. Spark blinked. Was that the lunch lady? She shrugged it off. Again, not the weirdest thing to happen. Deprankova began handing out packs to each of the children before stopping at her.

"Do you happen to know how to skydive?" She asked. Spark gave her a thumbs up, nodding. Deprankova blinked, obviously impressed, before shaking her head and handing her the pack. Spark shimmied it on before glancing over at the others.

"Woohoo!" Flinch shouted as he leapt out of the rocket. Spark noticed he wasn't wearing his parachute, instead holding it in one of his hands. For a second, she froze up. But she shook it off. He was probably fine. She quickly shot over, a small grin on her face as she let herself collapse backwards into the air. She watched as the others followed before twisting around and aiming to the ground below.

"Alright everyone. Release your chutes in 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1!" Pufferfish called. On her cue, the team proceeded to pull the strings on their parachutes, thus releasing it. Spark took a deep breath of the air, closing her eyes for a moment simply to feel the wind against her face. It reminded her, she needed to check out if there were any close places around that she could paraglide. She would need to check out the laws in the area.

But no matter, the group soon touched down onto the ground, quickly packing away their parachutes.

"Alright everyone. We're splitting up to check out the area. Our guy was supposed to be huddled up somewhere around here. Keep a close eye on the waterways. Gluestick with Flinch, Braceface with Wheezer, and Hodges, you're with me. Spark, I want you to stay here and watch the stuff and keep an eye out. Everyone got it?" She said. The team nodded and quickly grouped off. As they went to go to their respective jobs, Braceface patted Spark on the back with a sympathetic look.

"Sorry you have to stay and do the boring stuff. I know how that feels." He said. Spark laughed and waved him off.

"It's no problem." She said nonchalantly. Braceface grinned, giving her a thumbs up before rushing off to meet back with Wheezer who stood near one of the paths with an impatient look on her face. Spark sighed and crossed her arms while looking up at the sky.

She had finally figured out what the green light was around Pufferfish. It was suspicion. She didn't know why the heck she would be suspicious of her, but she guessed it was probably just in her nature. Pufferfish seemed to try extremely hard to be responsible. It would do her some good to loosen up. She leaned against the wall of a building, watching the water flow gently under the bridges. She hadn't been to Venice before. It was very pretty. Nice flowers, cute buildings, clear water, the works. She should tell her dad about it. Maybe he could take them there for a vacation on one of his off weeks or something. Although she doubted it. He was always so busy. Barely ever had time for them. She sighed, trying to push the bitter taste from her mouth. Suddenly, there was a strange pulse of energy from the North. Her eyebrows furrowed.

"Hey, guys. Did you just feel that?" She asked as she turned on the com link.

"Feel what?" Pufferfish asked.

"Weird energy pulse up North. Might want to check it out." She responded.

"Affirmative." Pufferfish said. The com turned off, and Spark crossed her arms. What a nice day to save the world.


	24. The wave master

Wind blew by as Spark sat still against the wall of the building behind her, flicking at her nails absently as she continued to stare at the water flowing beneath the bridges. After the first energy pulse, there was nothing. Her teammates hadn't gotten back to her either. It was boring, but nothing she couldn't deal with. People walked by, birds chirped, water flowed, the usual. There was a sudden crackle in her ear as she sneezed, signaling the activation of her com link.

"Everyone! Get to the north side, now! We've found the villain! We need backu-" Pufferfish shouted through the com link before she suddenly let out a pained yelp, and static took over. Spark twitched as she felt another pulse wash over her, and she shot up. She snatched the groups bags and tossed them behind a couple boxes as she sprinted forward. She dodged between people as she shot across bridges and streets and the like. Soon enough she skidded to a halt as she arrived at a large body of water.

There was a shattered bridge in front of her that seemed to only have been broken very recently, and across from that was a large floating building. She pushed up her sunglasses to her forehead to get a better view of what was there and stiffened up as she saw her teammates seeming to be fighting against something inside. She growled lowly as she flipped her shades back down and looked about. She didn't want to have to swim across. Unfortunately, there were no canoes around she could catch a ride on or anything of the sort. She groaned loudly, tossing her leather jacket to the side before leaping into the water. She swam the gap within a few minutes, grumbling the entire way. She pulled herself up and out of the water and onto the dock of the entrance with a wet plop. She didn't bother shaking herself off, instead quickly slamming the door open and stepping inside. All attention was suddenly on her as all occupants of the room looked to her in surprise.

She was met with the scene of a tall man, presumably the villain, holding Flinch tightly against his chest with a gun pressed firmly against his head. Spark would have wondered why he didn't just break his grip and run, had it not been for the fact that the glow in his harness was gone. The rest of the team was scattered in various positions, but all of them had been focused on the villain until she had burst in. Flinch shook off his surprise first, collapsing his knees and dropping to the floor. Spark immediately shot towards the man, jumping onto his back and latching onto the arm he held the gun in, forcing it down. She looked up again.

"Well? Come on! Get him!" She cried. Finally the NERDS shook off any remaining surprise and jumping into action. Pufferfish rushed at him, smacking his hand with the gun and causing it to drop before kicking it far away and giving him a punch to the face. Gluestick sprayed a stream of sticky gunk at his feet and stuck him firmly in place.

Braceface pulled back one of his arms as he formed a large fist and punched the man, aided by Wheezer who blasted forward and kicked him in the face. The man fell back onto the ground where Flinch immediately sat on his shoulders while Hodges sat on his stomach. The team finally calmed down, glancing at Spark.

"Uh, how did you get here? The bridge was destroyed." Wheezer said. She suddenly froze as Spark gave her a glare and she took in her sopping wet appearance.

"Actually, on second thought, don't answer that." She laughed nervously.

"It doesn't matter that you've stopped me! My machine isn't going to stop for anyone!" The villain shouted. Pufferfish rolled her eyes.

"That's what they all say. Hodges, Flinch, stay and keep holding him down while we find and destroy the wave maker." She ordered. The two nodded as she gestured for the others to follow her. The group quickly began shooting down the halls towards presumably where the machine was. Spark would have made a pun, but she suspected Pufferfish was allergic.

{sorry for the short chapter. ive been really tired}


	25. A shocking coincidence

"Come on! Move faster!" Pufferfish called to the group as they checked each room of the building for the machine, so far to no avail. Wheezer leaned out of her room to glare at the other girl.

"We're trying our best here, ok? Chill out." She said. Pufferfish crossed her arms, giving Wheezer a firm look.

"You do realize that Venice could be flooded if we don't move fast enough, right?" She asked. Wheezer grumbled as she moved to the next room.

"Don't worry, we'll find it!" Duncan said. Pufferfish simply let out a long breath and grumbled something. Spark exited the room she was searching with furrowed brows, glancing around.

"Pufferfish, you sure this is the level the machine is on?" She asked. Pufferfish raised her eyebrows.

"Pretty sure. The machine would likely need to be as close to the ground floor as possible for it to work. Why?" She answered. Spark felt another pulse of energy rip through her and she winced.

"I dunno. Maybe it's the fact that something just below the roof?" She replied bluntly, pointing up. Pufferfish bristled slightly, looking to where she was pointing.

"There's nothing there." She said flatly. Spark rolled her eyes, annoyance beginning to well up. But she took a deep breath and shook her head.

"Not to sound like I'm being egotistical, but I'm the one with energy powers. If you don't believe me, fine. But I'm checking that out." She said, pushing past the other girl. Pufferfish twitched and scratched at her side as she glared at Spark who was already running up the stairs to the other floors. Spark still had no idea why Pufferfish seemed so riled up around her. Yeah, she might seem like a bit of a stubborn stick in the mud, but she didn't look to be that tense around the others. The only one that got close was Braceface. She suddenly stopped on the stairs mid step and thought.

Maybe she was suspicious. That would explain the green parts of her aura and her attitude. She was, after all, apparently allergic to everything. Maybe she knew. Spark would need to talk to her after the mission. But for now, she continued up onto the top floor.

"Alright, where are you hiding?" She muttered, glancing around. With her upgrades guiding her, she quickly found the machine in one of the backmost rooms of the building and smirked.

"Bingo." She chuckled, unable to keep a slight bit of smugness from her voice. She pressed on her nose and activated the link.

"Found it. Told you it was on the top floor, Pufferfish." She stated.

"Nice going!" Braceface said happily.

"Finally! I was getting tired of searching." Matilda laughed. There was a noise like a balloon that was having it's air let out, and Pufferfish began to speak.

"Yeah, ok. We're getting there. Try to find a way to shut it off." She said in a strained voice.

"Copy that." Spark replied. She turned off the link and walked around the machine.

There didn't seem to be any visible off switch on it, although she really didn't expect for there to be. Having a doom machine with an off button in plain sight seemed like a bad idea for the villain's plans. She examined it closer, still to no avail. She had the breath knocked out of her when energy began pulsing out of it again. However this time, it didn't seem to be stopping.

"Did you find an off switch?" Gluestick asked as he shot into the room. Spark shook her head as she took a few steps back into the others who had entered the room as well.

"No, but we better act fast and destroy this thing or something. I think it's starting to get going." She answered. Pufferfish turned to Braceface and gestured to the machine.

"Braceface. Break this thing." She ordered. He nodded with a grin, his braces extending onto his vest, and turning into a large fist that encased his arm. He reeled back and sent a single solid punch at the thing. However as soon as he touched it, electricity shot across the fist and into his body, making him yelp in pain before falling to the ground.

"Shocking." Spark said on instinct. Nobody seemed very amused.


	26. Out again

"Ok. This is fine. We're fine." Pufferfish said as she paced, obviously trying to convince herself more than anyone else. The other NERDS stood in various positions around the room, nervous and fidgety. No matter what they had done, it seemed like nothing had affected the machine. It didn't help that any sort of physical touch had quickly sent shocks through whoever did it.

"Tick tock guys. We need to figure something out quick! That thing is going to start sending out the final waves any minute now!" Wheezer shouted in frustration. Pufferfish glared at her.

"No kidding." She retorted.

Spark watched them bicker, leaning up against the wall with her arms crossed and her eyebrows furrowed. The pulsing she could feel coming from the machine had grown almost painfully uncomfortable by this point, knocking the breath out of her every time it went off. She grit her teeth against it and attempted to focus. She could see the electric lines running through the building, powering everything there from the lights to the heat. It was still strange to look at, but that wasn't what caught her attention in the end. It was a yellow line running down from the machine in front of them. It disappeared for a moment as another pulse went through, but came back almost immediately after. She pushed herself from the wall and let the visions fade as she focused back on her teammates.

"Where is this thing getting it's power from?" She asked simply. All chatter in the room suddenly died as attention was drawn to her.

"There's solar panels and hydroelectric turbines on the outside of the building. It's pretty cool actually! This place has some of the best...oh." Gluestick began to explain, suddenly trailing off as he realized what she meant. Everyone else seemed to come to the same conclusion as he did, their. Eyes quickly shooting to Pufferfish.

"We need to shut the power down." She said.

"How are we going to do that? If I know villains, his machine is just going to pull electricity from the lines anyway. We would need to completely mess up all of the power supplies." Braceface said.

"This place is bound to have some candy somewhere. If we grab some, we can fuel up Flinch and have him run around and get all the solar panels. And then all we need is someone to go underwater and find the turbines to mess those up too." Spark said, walking over to them.

Pufferfish stared for a moment, thinking. She finally nodded and faced the whole group.

"Alright. Wheezer, Gluestick, you two run around the ground floor and look for some candy to get Flinch. Braceface, Spark, you get out there and try to find the turbines however you can. I'm staying here to try to figure out if there's any way to turn it off. Get moving!" She ordered. At her command, the group quickly shot out of the room to do as she said.

When they reached the bottom floor, the teams split up to go to their tasks.

"Hi! Bye!" Braceface called as they passed the two still guarding the villain. The two didn't wait for a greeting back as they plunged outside and into the sun.

"Ok. Uh, how are we going to do this?" Braceface said nervously.

"You can make propellers to speed around underwater. I'll try to find the energy lines and point you to them so you can take out the turbines. We need to move fast." Spark answered. Braceface nodded back and she turned her attention back to the water. She focused, letting the nanobytes take over as she began to see through to what she was looking for.

"Alright. First one is straight to the left. A couple yards from the end of the dock of this place." She said, pointing to where she saw the line. Braceface nodded, taking no time to sprint to the edge of the dock and dive off. He took a few deep breaths before diving underwater. Spark watched him disappear, crossing her arms.

She was worried about what would happen if the water began it's torrent while he was still in the water, but she couldn't let herself worry too much. It left room for mistakes. That's what she was taught, anyway. If something happened, she would need a new plan. But that was fine. All she could do was wait.


	27. The end of a mission

As the mission drew on, seconds almost seemed like months to Spark as she continued directing Braceface towards each turbine she could sense as he quickly destroyed them one by one. It had been a minute since Flinch had shot out of the building, quickly followed by Wheezer and Gluestick as they went to the roof to do their own destruction of property.

It was tedious. She had stopped worrying too much about the machine still likely whirring away inside. With how much power they had cut off so far, it wasn't likely to do much, if anything in fact. A machine like that needed a lot of power. Even cutting off one of it's power sources would be detrimental.

As she lamented in her thoughts, she almost missed as Braceface's head popped back up out of the water in front of her and looked up expectantly.

"Southeast. Last one. You can come up after this one." She said automatically. He let out a long relieved sigh at that.

"Thank god. I've messed up my hair by being in here for long enough." He said before taking one last deep breath of air and diving under once more. Spark watched him disappear into the water for a moment before looking up at the roof, where a large pinwheel looking object flew off and into the water.

"Are you guys almost done yet? Because we are!" She called out. A couple seconds later she watched as Gluestick popped his head over the edge of the roof, giving her a small thumbs up before darting back to do whatever he was doing. Spark sighed, crossing her arms and leaning against the building once more. For a second she chuckled about how much of a pain it was going to be for the owners to replace all of these power sources.

Another minute passed, and Braceface finally popped up once more. He used two long metal tentacles to help him back into the deck before shaking himself off like a wet dog.

"Geez, it's gonna take forever to dry off. I can't go to class like this!" He complained, attempting to smooth his hair back into its usual style to utterly no avail.

"You'll be fine. They'll probably have something to dry you off in the Playground." She responded. He gave her a dirty look and huffed slightly.

"Yeah but it's not the same! It takes half an hour to do all my gelling and stuff! I don't have that time!" He whined. Spark rolled her eyes. He sounded like her dad if she was honest. The thought made her snort under her breath.

She gave his hair a glance to examine it. It was wavy, even stuck to his head as it was. He must have used a good amount of hair product on it, considering how it was now nearly chin length, if not slightly past that.

"Come here." She said, gesturing a finger towards herself. Braceface blinked in confusion, but did as she said and came over. Once he was there, she turned him around and began pulling his hair away from his face and back.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked.

"Fixing your hair so it doesn't get in your face." Spark replied shortly, continuing to comb her fingers through his hair. Once she was done, she leaned down and fished a small hair band from her pants. She fiddled with Braceface's hair until she finally had it how she wanted it. A simple style, with half of his hair pulled back into a very small ponytail, leaving the rest out of it.

He reached up and felt it, frowning slightly when he did.

"It's girly."

"Would you rather have it blinding you?"

"...No." Braceface huffed, crossing his arms. A few seconds later, the two were joined by Gluestick, Wheezer, and Flinch, back from their duties on the roof.

"We done here?" Spark asked. The three nodded.

"I think so." Gluestick replied. Suddenly, the three sneezed all at once, and Pufferfish's voice rang through their heads.

"Congratulations, the machine looks like it stopped working. I've called the school bus already, and we're being picked up in ten." She said.

"Thank you ten." Spark said, leaning against the wall of the building once more.

A minute later, Pufferfish and Hodges came out of the building. A couple nods of acknowledgement were exchanged as the team waited for their ride to pick them up.

"So! Your first mission, Spark! How do you feel?" Gluestick asked happily. Spark thought for a moment, humming slightly.

"Feels good. Not much fighting involved, and I wasn't a big fan of having to swim across a moat or whatever to get here at the start, but it was good enough for a first time." She replied. Duncan nodded, and once again went quiet as they continued to wait. It took another few minutes, but there was a sudden sound of rockets above them, and they watched as the school bus descended and tossed down a rope ladder so they could climb in. And one by one, they did, settling down into their seats once they were all finally in it. As they took off and let the watery scene fade into the distance, Spark lamented at the future of her new job, and what it entailed. She hoped it wouldn't interfere too much with her other one. God knows that K would be on her back if she did. But in any case, it was a new development that she was more than ready to welcome into her life.


	28. Solid ground

Eve was roused from her nap as a shudder ran through the school bus, sending one of her eyes shooting open to examine the area. She relaxed when she saw where she was, letting out a long yawn and stretching slightly.

"Morning sleeping beauty, how did you sleep?" Came a voice from her side. She glanced over, seeing Matilda looking up at her with a teasing, gap toothed grin. Eve snorted and gave her a smirk.

"Sleeping beauty? Haven't heard that one before. As for how my sleep was, I think it was as good as it could be with us hurtling through space at a million miles per hour." She replied, unbuckling herself and standing up with the others.

As her mind whirred back into its usual alert state, her eyes focused onto the blonde girl right in front of her. Her eyes narrowed slightly behind her sunglasses as they stepped off the school bus, and she was quick to reach over and tap her on the shoulder.

"Hey. Puffs. Mind if I have a chat with you? Alone?" She asked as the girl turned. She could see as Ruby tensed, her eyes narrowing back at her as she went slightly ridgid. A slight tint of orange graced her aura as she adjusted her glasses.

"Sure. Let's talk." She said tensely. Eve smiled slightly, turning on her heel to lead her towards an empty area.

"Don't be so tense. I can practically feel it weighing me down. I'm not going to stab you or something, since I know that's probably what you're thinking." Eve chuckled as they arrived. Ruby's eyebrows furrowed, eyes narrowing even further.

"Sure you won't. Now tell me, why are we here? Let's just get it over with." She said, voice dripping with ice and suspicion. Eve chuckled and shook her head before looking her in the eyes.

"To the point then. That's fine." She shrugged, "What I'm saying, is that I'm not here to hurt any of you, no matter what you think. I'm not a spy, I'm not an assassin, I'm not anything you're thinking. But know this. If you try digging deep, you might end up finding something you shouldn't know. And trust me, if you do? I will be the least of your dangers." She said, her voice going flat and cold. Ruby tensed further, her eyes widening slightly. Eve kept the cool look on her face for a moment before letting out a laugh and patting her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm kidding. But really. Don't push too far or else I'm going to have to have to pull a ridiculous amount of strings for you. And I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to get strangled to death anytime soon. So for the sake of both of our little secrets, please don't dig too far. I like living, thanks very much." Eve said, a slight cringe on her face at the thoughts that went through her head. Ruby seemed to relax ever so slightly, her apparent fear and suspicion giving way to curiosity. Eve shook her head, turning on her heel before walking away and leaving the leader standing there, staring at her back as she disappeared.

It wasn't too long until Eve was once again stepping out of the lockers, seemingly just in time for the last bell to ring and children to begin flooding the halls, eager to get home. Eve was no different as she gathered her things and shot out of the building, throwing down her skateboard practically the same moment she opened the door.

A minute later she was flying along the sidewalk, watching the cars on the road speed by to their destinations as she made her way towards her own. It didn't take long for her to come to a stop in front of her sisters school, stepping off and glancing around the playground in front. Tommy was standing at the top of a dome monkey bar set, shouting something triumphant at a group of what seemed like her classmates. Eve gave a high pitched whistle, immediately drawing her sister's attention. Tommy said something to the group of children once more before easily dropping from the dome and skipping up to her.

"Hey kid. How was your day?" Eve asked. Tommy stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms.

"It was fine. But it's getting to be my birthday! So you can stop calling me kid." She replied. Eve smirked and reached forward to ruffle her hair roughly.

"Not likely. You'll always be a kid to me. A slightly bigger kid that's going to be pushing me off my skateboard in a year or two, but still a kid." She retorted. Tommy huffed as she hopped onto the skateboard with her, crossing her arms slightly. And with that, they were off once more.

Eve felt herself relaxing back into the familiar feeling of the rhythmic bumps and shifts of her skateboard as the two glided along the sidewalk. She felt Tommy's hand suddenly glide across the back of her shirt, investigative and suspicious.

"Did you go swimming in your clothes or something? Your clothes are all wrinkled, and your hair is a mess." She asked bluntly. Eve snorted, shaking her head and glancing back at the girl with a raised brow.

"I did go for a bit of a dive in my clothes, but not because of any reason you can come up with. Why the sudden question?" She responded. Tommy gave her an unimpressed look.

"You've been acting weird since we moved here. You've been worse the past day or two. What's going on with you? Is K going to strangle you over it?" She said. Eve sighed, looking ahead once again as they sped around a corner.

"Let's just say that if I told you I'd probably have to kill you. As for K, hopefully not as long as nobody I'm in with figures out about us." She answered. Tommy gave her another, more curious look that said she wanted to ask more. However thankfully as their home came into view, she pushed no further. She looked forward to taking a hot shower and winding down after her first ever mission in the NERDS. She really did hope that K wouldn't strangle her if she found out.


	29. Voiced concerns

The soft sound of pages flipping was almost the only sound in the empty library as the NERDS sat around a table, reading quietly. Of course this was save for the sound of rain gently tapping on the window glass and at the roof over their heads. And perhaps the soft breaths from Eve, leaning far back in her own chair, head slumped back. Sleeping, Ruby knew. Seeming to be what she did every time she didn't have something else important to do. She narrowed her eyes further at the other girl, grumbling slightly and looking back at her book. The noise caught the attention of Heathcliff and Duncan, glancing up to their leader, at each other, and back at her.

"Is...something up, Ruby?" Heathcliff asked. Ruby looked up at him, her eyes still narrowed behind her glasses.

"No." She answered flatly, immediately causing her fingers to swell. This was not lost on him, as he looked at her hands pointedly. Ruby grumbled again, giving him a small scowl. The others seemed to notice the sudden tenseness of the air, looking up at the two, who seemed to be staring each other down.

"We're just kinda...worried, you know? You've been off ever since Eve popped up." Duncan said gently, making Ruby break eye contact with Heathcliff to look over at the other boy.

"I'm fine." Ruby grit out, her hands swelling even more. The group exchanged glances, all with equally worried frowns on their faces.

"Ruby? Are you...jealous?" Matilda asked slowly. The question seemed to throw the other girl for a loop, making her recoil as her eyebrows shot up. She slammed her book shut, nearly making the table shudder as she smacked it down.

"No! Why in the heck would you think I'm jealous?" Ruby said incredulously. Matilda shrunk, shrugging slightly.

"I dunno. I just thought it might be a possibility since, well, you know. She's another "cool person" in our midst, and is kinda already showing off the fact that it looks like she might end up being one of our best. Although no offense. That's just speculation from what she's shown so far." She explained, putting her hands up in a settling gesture. Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose, attempting to take a deep breath in to calm herself, shaking her head and closing her eyes.

"No, I am NOT jealous. I'm suspicious is what I am." She said, crossing her eyes. The statement gained a few furrowed brows, once again the rest of the team looking to one another. They all knew better than anyone that when Ruby had suspicions, she was almost always right even without the upgrades guiding her intuition.

"Why? What's up with her?" Jackson asked, looking over at the girl in question with a small frown.

"There's just something not right about her. I mean, you can't just think she's just any regular joe shmoe. I mean, you heard what she told Brand, right? Knowing how to drive multiple different vehicle types? Weapons training? Multiple types of martial arts? At 12 years old? No way. The only one I've ever even heard that happening with is Mindy. And all of you know exactly what she ended up being. No normal kid just learns all of that stuff without some kind of reason behind it. It's definitely not normal that she's somehow able to lie perfectly over and over without setting off a single one of my allergies. That's not something you just learn without years of practice too." Ruby said as she crossed her arms, the memory of Eve's threat the other day passing through her head. She scratched at her shoulder as a rash spread onto it, scowling briefly once more.

"I guess it kind of is suspicious, and you are the one who always knows best about all this kind of stuff, but I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. We don't even know if there really is any ulterior reasoning to it. She could just have parents who just really like to get her involved in stuff." Heathcliff said.

Ruby frowned, staring down at the table as she chewed on her lip in thought. Flinch rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he glanced over at Eve then back to Ruby.

"It's just that she seems pretty nice. I'm not saying it's not possible you're right or anything, but maybe we should just give her a chance?" He said carefully.

"Plus, she seems like a good teammate to have anyway. I mean, all that stuff could be really useful if we get into any sticky situations with villains and stuff." Matilda chimed in. Ruby's frown deepened, her fingers tapping on her arm. Once again she took a deep breath, looking up at the group.

"Fine. We'll just have to see then. But if any one of you sees her do anything suspicious, you report back to me immediately. Understood?" She said flatly. The team all nodded, albeit some seeming slightly reluctant, glancing over at the target of suspicion that was still snoozing away in her chair.

"All we can do is hope it's nothing, right?" Heathcliff said with a forced smile, attempting to lighten the thick tenseness that saturated the air around the group.

"You got that right." Duncan sighed, shaking his head. Ruby's brows furrowed further as she leaned back, one hand's fingers tapping away at the table while the other furiously scratched at her neck. Once more, she looked over to her sleeping teammate, lips pursed into a tight line.

She shook her head again, finally forcing herself to relax her shoulders slightly. The girls sudden arrival there, as well as her air of secrets, wasn't something she hadn't dealt with before. Slightly jarring, yes, but definitely not anything that she, as the leader of the NERDS top team, could not easily take care of. If she tried anything, Ruby knew each of them could, and would, kick her behind into next week.

Well, at least she hoped so.


	30. Fearpng

"Benjamin? Does The Playground have rats or something?" Matilda asked.

It was a strange question, no doubt. But considering the circumstances, the whole group had deemed it necessary. The six watched the ball turn to them, looking at the group in what they could only imagine was stunned silence.

"No? Whatever made you think of that?" The small robot finally responded.

"Well, uhhh, you see, we've sort of been hearing noises from the vents and the walls and stuff all today. And weird kind of scraping and squeaking too." Jackson said.

"But Heathcliff and I don't think it's rats, since you do frequent rodent checks. Not to mention Ruby is allergic to rats, and she hasn't been getting any kind of reactions like that at all!" Duncan chimed, Heathcliff nodding along with him. Benjamin did what the group could only assume was the approximate of an affirmative nod, whirring slightly.

"Indeed. In fact, we did our rodent check just this morning. And I'm sure that if it were a rat or mouse of some kind, Ruby would have noticed." He chirped.

The group looked at each other, Duncan and Heathcliff with slightly satisfied looks on their faces, although the others had worried frowns instead. After a moment, their attention turned towards their leader, looking to her for guidance in the strange situation they found themselves in. She shook her head, eyebrows knitting together further.

"I don't know what it is either. Like I said to you guys when we first heard it, I'm not having any allergic reactions that aren't the usual right now. I hate to say it, but I'm stumped." She said.

"Well, why don't you six try to do some investigating yourselves? You don't currently have any work to be doing at the moment, so if you would like, you can seek out this problem and try to flush it out." Benjamin suggested. The NERDS blinked, looking to Ruby once more. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Fine. We can do it. But lets try to be quick." She said, turning on her heel and starting towards the training room, where all of it had started.

"Ruby, shouldn't we like, get Eve down here or something? With her whole energy sensing thing, we could probably do it faster." Heathcliff said.

Ruby's face immediately scrunched up, her hand coming up to scratch at her arm.

"Absolutely not. We can deal with this ourselves." She said flatly. Heathcliff chuckled awkwardly, shrinking slightly as the group went to follow.

Benjamin watched them go as they disappeared, only turning when he heard the entrance to The Playground activate, and none other than Eve floated down, a cold can of soda in her hand.

"Hey Benjamin. What's up? Where's the others?" She greeted, cracking the can open as she walked up to the little robot.

"Good afternoon, Spark. There is not too much going on. There has however, been a problem with the NERDS hearing strange noises in the walls and vents, as they described it, and went to investigate it. They're in the training room if you need them, although Pufferfish seemed adverse to your help." He replied. Eve blinked, taking a sip of her soda and plopping into her mission chair at the main table. She looked up, and Benjamin could tell she was scanning around, only taking a moment before her eyes settled on something just above the training room.

She was quiet for a moment, tilting her head as if in confusion before a look of slight realization came to her face, and she grinned. Benjamin looked to where she had, but like he expected, saw nothing at all.

"Spark? Are you going to go help your teammates?" He asked. Eve chuckled, taking another gulp of soda and shaking her head.

"Nah, I think I'll just watch how this goes." She said, kicking her feet up on the table and leaning back.

Meanwhile, the other NERDS roamed the training room, examining every nook and cranny they could find. However, all of it seemed to turn up nothing, leaving only the children's imagination to do the work.

"Do you think it could be something like a mutated creature from some villain we took down that followed us here?" Julio asked nervously, checking in a vent that he had pulled the cover from.

"No, Flinch. We already went over this. If it was something that wasn't already here, I would have known." Ruby retorted as she pushed aside a punching bag to check in the corner. However, all of the NERDS suddenly paused as one of the lights flickered for a couple of seconds, then went out. Almost as soon as they saw that, they heard an unnatural sound unlike anything they'd heard before. Almost like some kind of screech and buzz at the same time. Then came the skittering. Like the scratch and tap of claws just above them, the sound that had led them to get into this whole debacle.

The whole group was silent, everyone seeming to be in a state of nervous shock, save for Ruby.

"W-What was that?" Jackson yelped.

"I don't know, but no way that was an animal." Matilda replied, her gaze darting around as her hands hovered over her inhalers.

"It turned off that light." Duncan said, looking up towards said light, and shifting over slightly towards his asthmatic friend with an equally nervous look.

"It's fine, calm down. It's probably just a coincidence. We need to keep looking." Ruby stated. Heathcliff looked over at her, shaking his head.

"No way it can be a coincidence. The tech that runs through The Playground and keeps it all running is state of the art and not to be found anywhere else. Lights won't go out unless something was able to completely take out the wiring, which should be impossible because of the electricity going through it, and not to mention the sturdiness." He said, looking around once more as the noise started up again, the other NERDS only seeming to get more and more nervous.

"Guys, it's fine. Nothing can get into The Playground's workings without setting off something." Ruby said.

"Unless it was a monster!" Julio cried.

"There's no such thing as monsters, dude." Jackson said, even despite the fact he was looking like he was beginning to doubt that.

"Everyone, please just-"

"Look!!!" Duncan shouted, pointing up as another light buzzed, flickered, and went out, sending the group more towards the entrance as yet another strange screech echoed through the room. A couple seconds passed, and yet another went out with another screech from whatever creature caused it.

"How is it doing that?!?" Matilda said, backing up with the others to the wall as yet another light went out and sent them all to converge behind Ruby, who's arms were crossed as she glared up at the ceiling where it all was coming from. Another light, another screech. Duncan scrambled up onto the wall as the last light in the room flickered. However the vent next to it began to shake.

It went on for a moment before finally, greeted by the sounds of five children screeching in unison as they gripped their leader for their dear lives, it fell, bringing with it a small, square, metallic thing with spider like legs. As it did, the door to the room slammed open and a scientist rushed in, Eve casually strolling behind her.

"That's it!" The scientist cried, pointing to the little thing that could now be correctly identified as some kind of robot, as it attempted to skitter out of the room. Eve was quick to snatch it up, grinning and looking over at the NERDS, who almost all were staring at them in bewilderment and shock.

"What? Did a little thing like this scare y'all?" She teased, the thing screeching and flailing it's tiny little legs all about.

"My lord, I'm so sorry, children! I didn't mean to let this little thing scare all of you. It malfunctioned and ran into a hole in the training room we were looking to get patched up. It looks like it chewed through some of the wires as well. I'm really sorry, I'll get this out of here." The scientist said plucking the bot from Eve's hands and practically sprinting out of the room.

"...It was a ROBOT?!?!?" Matilda shouted.

"Yup. If only you had someone who could have figured that out for you sooner, huh?" Eve said, smirking as she glanced over at Ruby. The other girl grumbled heavily under her breath, giving Eve a glare.

"Oh shut up."


	31. Off you go

Rain. Perfect. One could only imagine it was the best day to be riding to school on a skateboard. But such is life when your mom is a drunk who would crash the car as soon as she put in the key. Thankfully, Eve and Tommy had raincoats. And as soon as Eve dropped off her little sister and rode to her own school, the doors were already open so they didn't leave students out in the pouring rain. She was glad for it. Didn't want to get any more soaked than she already was, after all.

Once inside, she shook herself off and made an attempt to wring out all the water from her hair, glancing around for her designated set of teammates. It wasn't long until she found them, seeing Julio waving her over.

It also wasn't long before she noticed one of the local groups of bullies about to egg them. She let out a quiet sigh, her pace picking up as the bully pulled his arm back, and arrived just in time to reach a hand out, which the thrown egg smacked and shattered against. She gave an icy sneer towards the boys, to which they immediately shrunk at as she flicked all the egg and shell off her hand, flopping into one of the seats.

"Geez, Eve. Back at it again with the reflexes, huh?" Jackson said as Duncan offered the tall girl a napkin to wipe her hand, which she gladly took. She only smiled and shrugged as she wiped off her hand.

"Anything new on the agenda today?" She asked.

"Not as far as we know right now. Would've been called down if there were. We'll see later if we get called during class or when we go check into the playground." Ruby answered, still looking like she was staring right through Eve. At least trying to.

It wasn't long until the bell rang, and they were off. And to be honest, school wasn't any different than usual. Just the same cycle they always went through. The only thing that was remotely interesting was the rock climbing activity they did in P.E. as well as the plate spinning. Though they did hear they would apparently be mummifying a chicken in their next class, which half the team seemed less than pleased about.

Thankfully, the time seemed to pass quickly that day, and it didn't seem like too long until the group was stepping into their lockers, and shooting down to The Playground, where they were almost immediately accosted by Mrs. Deprankova, who was carrying what looked to be a plate of...brownies? Probably brownies.

"Children! There you are, we were almost about to call you all down. There's a mission to be done! But before that, I made you all some brownies for a treat before we go off. I thought you may like it." She said. The team all cringed, of course save for Eve, who took one of the "brownies" and bit off half of it without a flinch, chewing as she walked off towards the mission table.

The phrase "what the fuck" came to mind seeing that.

Once all the children had taken their inedible brownies and sat down, director Alexander Brand appeared once more to them, Benjamin hovering about near him.

"It's good to see you all here quickly. We have a new mission on our hands, and it involves a new lead onto the mutant monsters we've been dealing with." He said.

The team seemed to shift moods, going from mostly calm to slightly tense, and highly attentive.

"We've gotten word of some sort of lab in California, guarded by these beasts. Unlike their usual behavior of roaming about. We'll be dropping there, and your job is to take out the monsters, get in the lab, investigate, and get out. Take any valuable intel you can get your hands on." He informed the group.

"I'm eager to punch someone's lights out." Matilda said, punching her fist into her hand.

"We will see how necessary that is once you get in there. But you all need to go on the side of caution, you don't know what could be in there." Brand responded, gesturing with a hand to start herding the kids to the school bus.

As they were loaded onto their transport, Eve suddenly felt...wrong. Very very wrong. Her gut churned, and she had to lean against the wall to keep from falling over as a wave of dizziness washed over her. She saw her teammates glance over at her as she started hacking and wheezing, covering her mouth with her arm as her entire body shook and broke into cold sweats.

"Eve?" Duncan asked in concern. Eve couldn't answer, still wracked by the fit.

Thankfully it faded quickly, and Eve was able to stand straight and take a glance at her sleeve. Thank god the black leather made the blood on it hard to see. She wiped it away quickly.

"Sorry, I'm fine. I just...have a condition I don't really want to talk about." She said, sitting down and buckling in like nothing had happened. Most of the team looked concerned, but Ruby was as suspicious as always.

The tall, jacket wearing blonde sighed as the rocket took off after they were all seated down, closing her eyes. She knew that coughing fit meant she was going to have a pain in the ass next couple hours, and an absolutely horrible next day. Always was in these fits. It was fine though. She'd dealt before, and she would deal again. Just a byproduct of being so fucked. It wasn't going to kill her.

Yet.


End file.
